Introduction: Lung fibrosis is one of the worldwide progressive serious irreversible diseases. It causes progressive deterioration of lung function and respiratory failure that necessitates lung transplantation. Amiodarone is an effective anti-arrhythmic drug that causes several pulmonary adverse effects; the most serious of which is lung fibrosis. Recently, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and platelet rich plasma (PRP) have emerged as two promising alternative therapeutic tools that can replace organ transplantation with all its drawbacks.
Aim of the Work: To compare the therapeutic effect of bone marrow (BM)-MSCs and PRP on amiodarone induced lung fibrosis in adult male albino rat model.
Materials and Methods: Fifty three adult male albino rats were divided into 4 groups in addition to donor group; those include: group I (control), group II (lung fibrosis) was injected daily with amiodarone (80 mg/ kg) IP for 4 weeks, group III (BM-MSCs) was treated as group II then was injected with a single IV dose of 1 ml of MSCs (3×103) and left for 4 weeks and group IV (PRP) was treated as group II then was injected IP with PRP (0.5 ml/kg) twice weekly for 4 weeks. Serum levels of Malondialdehyde (MDA) and transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) were measured. Lung sections were stained with H&E, Masson trichrome and immunohistochemical stain for alpha smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), Bax and CD68. Also, morphometric and statistical analysis were done.
Results: Group II showed typical histological features of lung fibrosis with abnormal architecture, biochemical and morphometric parameters. While group III & IV showed marked and partial improvement respectively in the histological architecture, biochemical and morphometric parameters.
Conclusion: BM-MSCs proved to be a more promising therapeutic agent for treatment of lung fibrosis than PRP due to their distinctive regenerative, anti-apoptotic and anti-inflammatory effects.