Meloxicam inhibits the progression of mice urothelial lesions chemically induced

Abstract

Meloxicam, an anti-inflammatory drug, is a cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor that has been used in cancer research. The goal of this work was to evaluate the effects of meloxicam on mouse urothelial lesions chemically induced. During 12 weeks, ICR male mice received N-butyl-N-(4-hydroxybutyl)nitrosamine (BBN) in drinking water, after meloxicam was administered by intraperitoneal route (20 mg/kg), 5 days a week, during 6 consecutively weeks. At the end of treatment, mice only exposed to BBN and mice exposed to BBN and treated with meloxicam, were sacrificed and their urinary bladders were collected. Urinary bladders from control groups revealed no changes. The incidence of urothelial lesions on mice exposed to BBN and not treated was: simple hyperplasia 80%, nodular hyperplasia 40%, dysplasia 90%, carcinoma in situ 10%, papillary neoplasms of low malignant potential 10%, low-grade papillary tumour 20%, high-grade papillary tumour 30% and invasive carcinoma 20%. On the other hand mice treated with meloxicam showed: simple hyperplasia 77.8%, nodular hyperplasia 44.4% and dysplasia100%. According to our results in mice treated with meloxicam we just observed preneoplastic lesions, in mice not treated with meloxicam we identified all the spectrum of urothelial neoplastic lesions. It appears that meloxicam prevented the progression of urothelial lesions.