Protective Effect of Artemisia judaica against Doxorubicin-Induced Toxicity in Mice

Aim: The present study aimed to investigate the protective effect of Artemisia Judaica (A. Judaica) against doxorubicin (DOX)-induced toxicity in male mice.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Cell Biology, Genetic engineering and biotechnology division, National research centre, Egypt, between March 2016 and February 2017.

Methodology: Male mice were divided into 7 groups (n=10) and treated as follow: the control group, the group treated with DMSO, the group injected (i.p.) with DOX , the groups treated with low and high dose of A. judaica extract and the groups injected (i.p.) with DOX and treated with low and high dose of A. judaica extract. Femur, testes and liver samples were collected for different analyses.

Results: Our data showed that A. judaica significantly reversed the DOX-induced elevation of DNA fragmentation rate and MDA level in liver tissue, as well as declined chromosomal aberrations (CAs) either in the bone marrow cells or in the spermatocyte cells. Meanwhile, the expression of apoptosis-related genes (Bax and Caspase-3) in liver tissues was analyzed by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and results revealed that genes expression were up-regulated in DOX treated mice however; the administration of A. judaica didn’t alter such increase.

Conclusion: Overall, the findings indicated that A. judaica may attenuate the DOX-induced toxicity. However; further studies are required to confirm the protective effect of A. judaica extract against toxicity caused by DOX drug.