Doxycycline Toxicity in Rats: Clinicobiochemical and Histopathological Studies

Doxycycline (DOX) is one of widely used antibiotics for treatment of different diseases in human and animals. This study aimed to evaluate the toxic effects of DOX on different organs in rats. The experiment was carried out on forty albino rats, they were randomly divided into four equal groups (10/each): Group 1 served as control group, Group 2 received doxycycline hyclate 5 mg/Kg Bwt, Group 3 received doxycycline hyclate 25 mg/Kg Bwt and Group 4 received doxycycline hyclate 50 mg/Kg Bwt. DOX was given intragastrically twice daily (12 hours interval) for 4 weeks. The results revealed a significant increase in serum level of liver enzymes (aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT)), increased serum total protein, albumin and globulins, elevated serum levels of urea and creatinine, in addition to an increase in cardiac toxicity indicators (lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and creatine kinase (CK)-MB enzymes and troponin-I). Also, there were significant increase in levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and significant depletion of reduced glutathione (GSH) content besides various histopathological alterations in liver, kidneys and heart of DOX treated groups.