Hepatotoxic and Nephrotoxic Potential of an Anticancer Drug Paclitaxel after Prolong Exposure in Adult Female Rats

Paclitaxel (PTX) is a microtubule inhibitor commonly used as a potent chemotherapeutic agent for treatment of a variety of cancers including breast cancer. PTX is causing several serious side effects during and after chemotherapy related to metabolic and renal dysfunctions. Clinical and non-clinical studies on PTX exposure and histopathological changes in liver and kidney are limited; therefore present study was designed to evaluate hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity of PTX in adult female rats. In this regimen, equivalent therapeutic doses of PTX (1.6 and 3.2 mg/kg BW) were intravenously administered weekly for six weeks. After six weeks of exposure, liver and kidney of PTX exposed and control rats were extirpated, fixed in 10% neutral buffered formalin for paraffin sectioning. As per protocol, sections of liver and kidney were cut at 8 µm and finally stained with Haematoxylin and Eosin. Our results demonstrated that intermittent exposure to PTX for six weeks (once per week) induced substantive histopathological changes in liver (hepatocyte derangement, blood clotting, and CV dilatation) and kidney (glomerular atrophy, vascular congestion, dilation of distal tubules) of female rats.