ABSTRACT
Asthma is one of the most common chronic, non-communicable diseases in children and adults. Asthma features variable airway obstruction and an increase in sensitivity to a wide variety of airway narrowing stimuli. Clinically, asthmatic individuals exhibit repeated episodes of wheeze, cough, chest tightness, and shortness of breath. Several drugs have been used in the treatment of asthma, which includes hydrocortisone and montelukast. Lipid profile evaluates a person’s blood lipid status quantitatively and they include: Chylomicrons (Triglyceride, Total Cholesterol, very-low-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein and high-density lipoprotein. The aim of this study is to understand the effects of hydrocortisone and montelukast on lipid profile on asthma induced albino wistar rats. Methodology: 25 albino wistar rats weighing between 200-250g were divided into two main groups; the Control group and Test group. The control group was further subdivided into group1: control and group 2: negative control (asthma induced and not treated) while the test group was further subdivided into three groups; group 3: asthma-induced and treated with hydrocortisone, group 4: asthma-induced and treated with montelukast, and group 5: asthma-induced and treated with montelukast and hydrocortisone. Asthma was induced by sensitizing the rats with ovalbumin (OVA) (100µg/kg, intraperitoneal) on day 0, 7 and 14 and was challenged with OVA (0.5% w/v, absorbed in 100mg/ml aluminium hydroxide) three days a week for four weeks with a medel family nebulizer. During the period of challenge, the test groups were also treated with the different drugs for each of the groups, montelukast (2mg/kg) and hydrocortisone (3mg/kg) and both montelukast and hydrocortisone (2mg/kg and 3mg/kg respectively). At the end of the four weeks, the rats were sacrificed by anaesthetized method, and blood samples were collected and taken to the laboratory for analysis. This study shows that there was a statistically significant increase in the level of total cholesterol when treated with both montelukast and hydrocortisone compared to the control group and also there was no statistically significant difference in the level of triglyceride, high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein and very-low-density lipoprotein when treated with montelukast and hydrocortisone. This study revealed that the treatment of asthma induced rats with hydrocortisone, montelukast and both hydrocortisone and montelukast yielded no significant difference in the level of triglyceride, high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein and very-low-density lipoprotein but treatment with montelukast/hydrocortisone caused a statistical significant increase in the level of total cholesterol in the blood.
