الفهرس 
The possible effect of melatonin versus mesenchymal stem cells in relation to vascular endothelial growth factor in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease model in rats
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Abstract
Background: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common disease and is currently one of the leading causes of death globally. COPD is characterized by incompletely reversible airflow limitation. In addition, the characteristic pathological changes in COPD include small airway lesions and emphysema change.
Aim of work: The present study was designed to compare the possible therapeutic effects of melatonin versus bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) on an experimental design for COPD in adult male albino rats and detect whether monotherapy or combined therapy is more effective in this model.
Materials and Methods: The study started with 60 rats. 10 rats were randomly considered control group (group I). The remaining rats were exposed to cigarette smoking (4 weeks) and Lipopolysaccharides injection (200 µg/200 µL twice, at day 1 and day 15) to induce COPD. Confirmed COPD rats were subdivided into further 4 studying groups: COPD group (group II, n=10), non-treated for the rest of the study protocol; melatonin group (group III, n=10), treated with oral melatonin (30 mg/kg); MSCs group (group IV, n=10), treated with single intra-tracheal injection of MSCs (4 × 106); combined group (group V, n=10), treated with 30mg/kg melatonin and 4 × 106 MSCs. At the end of the studying protocol (4 weeks following COPD induction), pulmonary function tests were done and lung tissue samples were collected for the measurement of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) level and hypoxia inducible factor 1α (HIF1α) expression in lung tissue and immmuno-histological examination for CD31.
Results: Cigarette smoking and LPS injection revealed deterioration of rats’ pulmonary functions with increased VEGF and HIF1α expression in lung tissue and also destroyed bronchiolar wall and massive inflammatory cells infiltration. Treatment with melatonin or MSC alleviated the pulmonary functions, partially restoring the histological features and decreasing VEGF and HIF1α expression but melatonin was more efficient than MSCs and also the combined therapy was better than the mono-therapy.
Conclusion: Melatonin and MSCs had the ability to attenuate cigarette smoking and LPS induced COPD via their potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory role, but MSCs had a less efficient effect. On the other hand, combined therapy showed a better improving effect compared to mono-therapy of either Melatonin or MSCs.