EVALUATION OF THE CYTOGENETIC EFFECT OF CYCLOOXYGENASE INHIBITOR; FLUNIXIN MEGLUMINE (FINADYNE)® IN RATS

A study was carried out to evaluate the effect of Flunixin meglumine (Finadyne)®; a cyclo-oxygenase inhibitor; on different cytogenetic parameters including mitotic index, chromosomal aberrations, quantitative estimation of nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) and detection of genetic diversity using Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA RAPD technique in rats. The experiment was conducted on 30 female albino rats divided into three equal groups each of ten as follows: The first group was the control group. The second group was intramuscularly injected with finadyne; 2.5 mg /kg body weight once daily for 7 successive days. The third group was intramuscularly injected with the same dose of finadyne for 30 days prolonged administration. Analysis of the obtained results indicated that, finadyne elicited a significant decrease in the mitotic index when intramuscularly injected to rats for 7 days and 30 days compared with the control .Only prolonged administration of finadyne for 30 days evoked a significantincrease in the mean values of the total structural chromosomal aberrations. Quantitative estimation of nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) revealed significant decrease in DNA and RNA contents of rats given finadyne for 30 days .Analysis of genetic identity and diversity using Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique by the means of random oligodeoxyribonucleotide primers showed that the numbers of produced bands were found to be variable among groups using different primers. DNA extracted from blood of rats injected with finadyne for 30 days showed the lowest numbers of polymorphic with unique bands compared with the control. The dendrogram based on the correlation matrix between different groups showed high similarity between amplified polymorphic bands of DNA of the control and those of rats treated with finadyne for 7 days while there was significant genetic diversity between DNA of rats treated with finadyne for 30 days compared with those of the control. Taken together, our findings are not in favor of the unjustified prolonged administration of flunixin meglumin due to the detectable hazard of cytogenetic influences.