Possible Effect of Pentoxifylline on Sciatic Nerve Vascularity in a Model of Streptozotocin Induced Diabetic Neuropathy in Rats

Abstract

Background and Aim: Diabetes and its complication increasingly have become a major health problem facing the whole world. Peripheral diabetic neuropathy (DN) is regarded one of the most common diabetic chronic microvascular complications. Multiple domains contribute to the pathogenesis of DN including the inflammatory as well as the vascular pathways.There is a degree of interaction between the diabetic microvascular changes and the undergoing inflammatory process. This interaction was found to be more prominent in painful DN. Thus, several drugs which were able to improve either pain behavior or nerve conduction velocity (NCV) act through either the inflammatory or the microvascular etiopathogenesis. The present study aimed to investigate the potential neuroprotective effect of pentoxifylline (PTX) administration (50, 100 and 200mg/kg) in DN as regard therapeutic targeting of both the inflammatory and the vascular changes affecting peripheral nerves. In addition, it evaluates the anti-allodynic effect of PTX in diabetic neuropathic pain (DNP).