WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

Fatima Mahfoud*, Rana Makhous and Rana Issa

ABSTRACT

Statins are a class of hypolipidemic drugs, which commonly prescribed for elderly people and those with heart- related conditions, often in combination with Aspirin and other Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs). The use of NSAIDs is one of the primary causes in the development of gastric ulcers, however studies about the effect of statins on gastric ulcers have presented conflicting results. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of Atorvastatin on gastric ulcers induced by Indomethacin in mice, thus evaluating the safety of this combination. Animals were divided into 4 groups (n= 7 in each): group 1 (Control), group 2 (Indomethacin), group 3 (Atorvastatin 16.4 mg/kg), group 4 (Famotidine 8.3 mg/kg). Drugs were given orally for 26 days, and then gastric ulcers were induced by a single oral dose of Indomethacin (300 mg/kg) in the last day of the experiment. Histological findings revealed that the group of animals that received Indomethacin experienced ulceration of the entire mucosa, while pre-treatment with Atorvastatin prevented ulceration and reduced the depth of lesions in comparison to the Indomethacin group. There was no statistically significant difference observed between the Atorvastatin group and the Famotidine group.