Süleyman BAYKAL, Ertuğrul ÇAKIR, Murat KARAKUŞ, Kayhan KUZEYLİ, Şükrücan H. BAYTAN, Cavit BOZ

The effects of pentoxifylline in experimantal nerve injury

Several studies have suggested that pentoxifylline, a theophylline-related drug that decreases erytrhocyte stiffness, may be useful in treatment of ischaemia reperfusion injuries of brain, liver and small intestine in animal experiments. Fourteen Wistar-Albino rats weighing between 180-250 g were used for the experiment and divided equally to two groups. Before the injury, electroneuromyographic (ENMG) data were recorded from right and left sciatic nerves. Right sciatic nerves of the seven rats of group 1 were crushed with a clip. Same lesions were performed on seven rats of group 2 and also pentoxifylline (50mg/kg/day) was applied intraperitoneally once in a day for 21 days. Immediately after the third week of the operation, electrophysiological studies were performed in the both groups again. In the treated group latencies of compound muscle action potentials (CMAP) treated with the pentoxifylline were found shorter than the untreated group, but this difference was not statistically significant. Whereas, in the animals treated with pentoxifylline, amplitudes of the CMAP recordings were higher than the untreated group and the difference was statistically significant. These results suggested that pentoxifylline has a positive effect on axon regeneration but no significant improving effect on segmental remyelination.

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