Introduction: Atorvastatin is "HMG-COA" reductase inhibitors" that is widely used for management of hyperlipidemia particularly in patients with risk of cardio and cerebrovascular stroke. Similar to other medications, atorvastatin has adverse effect and recent studies showing that atorvastatin may affect the function of the pancreas .The aim of this work is to assess the functional and the structural changes of endocrine and exocrine parts of pancreas of female rats that were treated with atorvastatin and to assess the possible defensive role of propolis.
Methods and Result: Four groups of female albino rats (ten animals in each) were treated as follow: Group I regarded as control and received nothing , group II received 100 mg/ kg propolis by oral gavage, Group III treated with atorvastatin at a dose of 80 mg/kg orally while group IV was treated with propolis and atorvastatin as same dose as GII and GIII respectively . After three months, blood was drown from tail's vein for biochemical assessment , then animals were sacrificed and pancreas were removed and processed for light microscopic examination. The results indicated that atorvastatin significantly elevate blood glucose , pancreatic enzyme as well as oxidative stress biomarkers of pancreas these finding were confirmed by histological changes in both endocrine and exocrine portion which include degeneration, ,vascular congestion, hemorrhage and inflammatory cells infiltration of pancreatic tissue. However, administration of propolis concomitantly with atorvastatin improved both the biochemical and the histological changes.
Conclusion: Propolis has protective effect against atorvastatin induced pancreatic dysfunction.