Pattern of Histopathological Alterations in N-methyl-N-Nitrosourea (MNU) Induced Breast Cancer in Female Sprague Dawley (SD) Rats Treated with Crude Honey

Abstract

Natural products are becoming primary investigative molecules creating hope for finding new powerful classes of anticancer agents for breast cancer. One of the most remarkable of these is honey. To explore the mechanism of action of any anticancer agent the initial step is to analyse its effect in the histopathological tissue section. This study was designed to describe the histopathology of N-methyl- N-nitrosourea (MNU) induced breast cancer in Sprague Dawley rat (SD rats) treated with crude honey. Female rats were distributed into 4 groups: Group0 (normal), Group1 (MNU control), Group2 and 3: Tualang and Manuka honey-treated, respectively. Rats were sacrificed and histopathology of both non-treated and treated tumours was done. Lower histological grade, infrequent combination histologic pattern (p<0.001), prominent cytoplasmic vacuolization (p<0.001), aggregates of atypical macrophages (p<0.001) and lesser necrosis (p= 0.005) were major outcomes in treated cancers. This data will aid in the histopathological interpretation of honey-treated breast cancer model and future anticancer study of honey.