Electron microscopic study on the effect of chronic fluoxetine treatment on pituitary gland and the possible therapeutic effect of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells in adult male albino rats

ABSTRACT

Background: Adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADSCs) have therapeutic potential for the treatment of a variety of disorders due to their self-renewal and multipotential differentiation capabilities. Aim of the work: This study was planned to demonstrate the electron microscopic structure of the pituitary gland after chronic fluoxetine treatment and the possible therapeutic effect of ADSCs.

Materials and methods:Thirty healthy male adult albino rats were classified into Control group (Group I). Fluoxetine treated (Group II) received 24 mg/kg/day of fluoxetine dissolved in 1.0 mL of tap water once a day. Fluoxetine group treated with ADSCs (Group III) received fluoxetine as group (II) for 30 days and then was injected once by ADSCs at a dose of 1 × 106 cells/rat in the tail vein suspended in 0.5 ml of phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). Recovery group (Group IV) received fluoxetine for 30 days and then received no treatment till the end of the experiment. Results: The ultrastructural observations of the fluoxetine-treated group revealed major histological changes in both the pars distalis and nervosa. Pars distalis revealed cells with different shapes, sizes, nuclei, and variable profiles of the cytoplasm. Pars nervosa, on the other hand, revealed pituicytes with electron-lucent cytoplasm and small apoptotic nuclei. Administration of ADSCs greatly improved the microscopic appearance of cells, while the recovery group showed similar histological changes as the fluoxetine group. Conclusion: Fluoxetine caused various deleterious changes in the pituitary gland of albino rats, as evidenced by electron microscopy. These changes were almost corrected by the ADSCs treatment.    .

KEYWORDS:

• adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells
• fluoxetine
• pars distalis
• pars nervosa
• pituitary gland
• rats

Acknowledgments

We thank Dr Laila Rashed, Professor of Biochemistry, Kasr Al-Ainy Medical School for providing us with labeled adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells.

Author Contributions

NSW: Conceptualization, Supervision. AOS: Methodology, Visualization. EGA: Methodology, Software, investigating, writing—Original Draft, data curation. MZM: Formal analysis, Writing—Review & Editing. All authors contributed to editing and critical review of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval

All rats received care according to the standard of the national guide for care and use of laboratory animals (NIH Publications no. 8023, revised 1978). The Institutional Animal Care And Use Committee (IACUC) Zagazig university, Egypt approved the design of the experiment.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/01913123.2022.2083279

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.