ABSTRACT

Endometritis usually is a disorder of the reproductive years. Endometritis typically presents with intermenstrual vaginal bleeding, and sometimes it causes menorrhagia. This disorder also may be associated with infertility. Chronic endometritis is a persistent inflammation of the inner lining of the uterine cavity. Studies have demonstrated that it is a condition frequently associated with repeated unexplained implantation failure, recurrent miscarriage, as well as poor obstetric outcomes such as preterm labour.The aim of this study is to provide information about the role of ascorbic acid in E.coli induced endometritis using non-pregnant animal models.

Animals were inoculated with a clinical isolate of Escherichia coli (E. coli). Two days post inoculation the animals were treated with ascorbic acid (10, 100 and 1000 mg/kg) and amoxicillin (500 mg/kg) for 5 days. There was also the group receiving water only and the group inoculated with E. coli but received no treatment. Body temperatures, body weight and vaginal cytology were examined. On the 6^th day post inoculation the animals were sacrificed and blood samples were obtained via cardiac puncture under chloroform anaesthesia and submitted for haematological analysis. Uterine organs were also collected and weighed. One-half of the uterine horn was submitted for histological analysis while the other half was examined ex-vivo for functionality. There were no statistically significant differences in the body weights and temperatures obtained. There were also no statistically significant differences across most of the haematological parameters obtained. The presence of endometritis disrupted normal oestrus cycling which was reversed in the presence of ascorbic acid and amoxicillin. Similarly histo-architectural distortions due to endometritis were reversed in the presence of ascorbic acid and amoxicillin. This study has shown that treatment with ascorbic acid shows remarkable improvement of endometritis compared with the amoxicillin treated groups.