Nowadays several papers deal with the effectiveness and side effects of
metal complexes, especially
cisplatin, in
cancer therapy. The excretion of essential
metal elements from the body is a serious problem in the treatment, but there are no data concerning the distribution and metabolism of toxic and nonessential elements. Therefore our aim was to study the concentration of some of these elements
after treatment with
cisplatin. Male Wistar rats (n=20, 175-190 g) were randomly divided into 2 groups (n=10/group). The control group received 1% (w/v)
methyl cellulose at 10 mL/kg
body weight, p.o. by gastric gavage twice daily for 14 days, while
cisplatin was injected i.p. in a single dose of 6.5 mg/kg
body weight. Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) was used for measuring Al, B, Ba, Cr, Li, Ni, Pb, Pt, Sb, Si, Sn, Sr and V content in plasma, liver and kidney. Liver total scavenger capacity, diene conjugate content and
malondialdehyde concentration were also determined.
Cisplatin elevated the
free radical reactions in the liver, although redox balance did not change significantly. According to the study it seems that the metabolism of Al, Ba, Cr, Ni, Pb, Sr were changed by the effect of
cisplatin, and the most notable alterations were found for Al and Pb. Therefore, besides the toxic effect of and
free radical induction by Pt, the side effects of increased levels of other toxic and non-essential elements have to be taken into consideration.