RESUMO
The development of new herbal preparations for the treatment of urolithiasis is an urgent task of medical science. Ficus have attracted the attention of pharmacologists due to a wide range of biological properties, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and antifungal activity. We studied the effectiveness of Ficus tikoua Bur. in SD rats in which urolithiasis was induced by 6 weeks of oral administration of ethylene glycol 0.5% ad libitum instead of drinking water. Administration of the extract of Ficus tikoua Bur., as well as comparative drug Cystone® after modeling of urolithiasis lead to the restoration of diuresis and the concentration of inorganic phosphates starting from the 6th week of the experiment. The use of the Ficus tikoua Bur. extract for 6 weeks, both during the modeling of urolithiasis and during the recovery period, led to the restoration of the percentage of lymphocytes in the blood, content of sodium, chlorine and inorganic phosphates in the blood to the control level. Thus, the extract of Ficus tikoua Bur. seems to be a promising drug for effective treatment of the initial stages of the development of urolithiasis.
RESUMO
CO2 inhalation is currently the most common method of euthanasia for laboratory rats and mice, and it is often used for further terminal blood sampling for clinical biochemical assays. Lately, this method has been criticized due to animal welfare issues associated with some processes that develop after CO2 inhalation. The stress reaction and the value of the clinical laboratory parameters significantly depend on the used anesthetics, method, and the site of blood sampling. Especially in small rodents, an acute terminal state followed by a cascade of metabolic reactions that can affect the studied biochemical profile may develop and cause unnecessary suffering of animals. The aim of this study was to compare the stability of biochemical parameters of outbred Sprague Dawley rats and CD-1 mice serum collected after CO2 inhalation or the intramuscular injection of tiletamine-zolazepam-xylazine (TZX). The serum content of total protein and albumin, cholesterol, triglycerides, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotr ansferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), total bilirubin, and creatinine was decreased by the injection of TZX in comparison with CO2 inhalation. In addition, the levels of calcium, phosphates, chlorides and potassium were lowered by TZX vs. CO2 administration, while the level of sodium increased. Finally, the level of the majority of serum clinical biochemical parameters in rats and mice tend to be overestimated after CO2 inhalation, which may lead to masking the possible effect of anti-inflammatory drugs in animal tests. Injection anesthesia for small rodents with TZX is a more feasible method for terminal blood sampling, which also reduces the suffering of animals.
