EFFECT OF OCTREOTIDE ON THE PATHOLOGY OF HEPATIC SCHISTOSOMIASIS

In clinical practice, octreotide (CAS 83150-76-9) has its greatest imp act in the management of bleeding varices. The present work is the fir st one which was undertaken to investigate the possible use of octreot ide as an antifibrotic agent and to study its effect on hepatic vascul ature in Schistosoma mansoni infection. The material of this investiga tion consisted of two groups of albino mice (A, B), subdivided each in to normal control, infected control, subgroups treated with octreotide , praziquantel (CAS 55268-74-1), and a combination of octreotide and p raziquantel. Groups A and B were sacrificed at the 8th week and the 18 th week post infection, respectively. By analysis of the obtained resu lts, octreotide induced a reduction of the portal pressure, the weight of the spleen and the liver, the liver egg load (number of eggs) gran uloma size and cellularity, and of the degree of hepatic fibrosis quan tified by serum N-terminal peptide of type III procollagen in serum, s erum laminin and tissue collagen using a Picrosirius red dye assay. Mo reover, the biochemical state of hepatocytes has been improved. The su bgroups treated with octreotide in association with praziquantel revea led better results than the subgroups treated with praziquantel alone. These obtained data were analysed in terms of histological extent of liver fibrosis in sections stained with Masson trichrome and sirius re d, hepatocytic and sinusoidal changes at an ultrastructural level and by immunohistochemical demarcation of endothelial cells of blood vesse ls through the determination of factor VIII-related antigen. The promi sing results detected in this study may encourage to further investiga te the positive findings of this drug with the intention of its possib le application on a clinical level.