Histological and ultrastructural studies on the effect of Cassia alata methanolic leaf extracts against chemically induced lung adenocarcinoma in rats

ABSTRACT The present work aims to evaluate anticancer performance of Cassia alata methanolic leaf extracts (CMLE) in ethyl carbamate-stimulated lung adenocarcinoma (LAD) in differentiation to the function of Cisplatin (CIPL). Rats were divided into four groups: (1) control (CONT), (2) lung-adenocarcinoma (LAD) injected intra-peritoneally with 1g/kg ethyl carbamate once weekly for a month, (3) LAD+CMLE administered 500 mg/kg CMLE orally for the last two months of the experiment, and (4) LAD+CIPL treated group, injected 2.5 mg/kg Cisplatin intraperitoneally once weekly for the last two months of the experiment. Light and electron microscopic examinations revealed adenocarcinoma development in terminal bronchiole besides some histopathological changes in the LAD group such as atypical, exaggerated collagen fibers, increment of mucinous content, and increasing of PCNA positive immunoreactivity whereas electron microscopy investigation exposed that papillary adenocarcinoma originated from Clara cells in the LAD group. The LAD+CMLE treated group showed no tumor masses and nearly all with normal lung histology. It also recovered the normal ultrastructure of bronchiolar Clara cells. CMLE treatment offers a new alternative cure with less toxicity than Cisplatin for lung cancer therapy. Hence, CMLE would be employed as a novel supply of anti-cancer compounds combating lung cancer.