<p>Comparative Effects of Dexamethasone and Meloxicam on Magnitude of the Acute Inflammatory Response Induced by <em>Escherichia coli</em> Lipopolysaccharide in Broiler Chickens</p>
Mohadeseh Manzari Tavakoli, Bahman Abdi‐Hachesoo, Saeed Nazıfı, Najmeh Mosleh, Seyedeh Alemeh Hosseinian, Peyman Nakhaee
Abstract
PURPOSE: Dexamethasone has been widely used to treat acute inflammatory diseases and endotoxic shocks in animal models. Meloxicam is one of the most commonly used anti-inflammatory agents in avian species. However, little is known about the effects of dexamethasone and meloxicam on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced acute inflammatory response in birds. In the present study, LPS-challenged broiler chickens were used to investigate the comparative protective effects of meloxicam and dexamethasone on LPS-induced acute inflammatory responses. METHODS: LPS and simultaneously treated with two doses of meloxicam (0.5 and 2 mg/kg BW) and dexamethasone (2 and 4 mg/kg BW). RESULTS: LPS-induced ALI scores were not significantly different between the meloxicam-treated, dexamethasone-treated, and untreated positive control groups at 4 hours after LPS inoculation. Interleukin-6 concentrations were also statistically the same among the positive control, dexamethasone-treated, and meloxicam-treated groups at 3 and 12 hours after LPS inoculation. However, these anti-inflammatory drugs reduced adenosine deaminase, ceruloplasmin, lipid-bound sialic acid, protein-bound sialic acid, and total sialic acid in LPS-inoculated broiler chickens at 12, 24, and 48 hours after LPS inoculation in a drug- and dose-dependent manner. Ovotransferrin concentrations were not significantly different between positive control and treatment groups at 12 hours after LPS inoculation. However, twenty-four hours after LPS inoculation, all the treated groups, except the one treated with 0.5 mg/kg meloxicam, showed significantly lower concentrations of ovotransferrin as compared with the positive control group. CONCLUSION: Our results showed that dexamethasone was more effective than meloxicam in inhibiting the LPS-induced response in broiler chickens by diminishing the serum levels of adenosine deaminase, ceruloplasmin, and gangliosides.