Hepatotoxicity and Nephrotoxicity Provoked by an Anti-Androgen Drug (Bicalutamide) in Rat

Bicalutamide (Casodex) is prescribed for the management of prostate metastatic carcinoma. The current investigation was designed to evaluate the physiological and histological impact of bicalutamide on the liver and kidney of rats. Twelve male albino rats were divided randomly into two groups. The first group represents the control and received 1ml of distilled water. The second group received bicalutamide (0.8mg/kg body weight/day) by gavage for six weeks. After the experiment wraps up, histological, biochemical and physiological evaluation of BCT treatment was achieved. Unpaired T-test was used by using GraphPad Prism to compare two groups of the current investigation. With respect to the liver, certain histological alterations such as congestion of blood vessels, appearance of infiltrated inflammatory leucocytes, degenerated hepatocytes and fatty changes following BCT treatment were detected. The BCT treated rats showed significantly increase of serum alkaline phosphatase and alanine aminotransferase compared with control rats. Bicalutamide showed certain nephrotoxic features such as shrunk of glomeruli tuft, congestion of some blood vessels and dilatation of kidney tubules. Immunohistochemical technique applied for demonstration of p53, apoptosis was the main mode of cell death of renal tubule cells in the BCT group. In conclusion, bicalutamide administration caused numerous biochemicals, histological and immunological changes in rat liver and kidneys.