Impact of early malnourishment on the chronic inflammatory response and its implications for the effect of indomethacin on Wistar rats

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to investigate whether early undernutrition changes the chronic inflammatory response, so as to study its influence on pharmacological response to indomethacin. Rat offspring of dams fed from the first day of gestation to term or throughout the lactation period received a balanced diet (NN) or a basic regional diet (BRD) from northeast Brazil. According to their dams, the offspring were divided into three groups: NN; basic regional diet during gestation (BRD-g, undernourished during gestation); basic regional diet during gestation and lactation (BRD-gl, undernourished during gestation and lactation). At 2 months of age, Freund's adjuvant (0·2 ml) was inoculated into the plantar surface of the hind paw (day 0) of animals. All animals orally received saline (0·9 %) for 28 d. Another group of adult offspring was subjected to the same procedure as described above, but orally received indomethacin (2 mg/kg) instead of saline, and divided into three subgroups: NN treated with indomethacin (NNI); BRD-g treated with indomethacin (BRDI-g); BRD-gl treated with indomethacin (BRDI-gl). The hind paw volume was calculated on days 0 (initial paw volume), 7, 14 and 28. Hind paw swelling, blood albumin and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels and leucocyte counts were evaluated as markers of inflammation. Reduced hind paw swelling and the blood levels of serum albumin and CRP were found in the BRD-g and BRD-gl offspring. However, no difference was found in the leucocyte count. Compared with their respective saline-treated groups (NN, BRD-g and BRD-gl), the anti-inflammatory effect of indomethacin was lower in the BRDI-g and BRDI-gl groups than in the NNI group. We conclude that early undernutrition attenuated the chronic inflammatory response and the anti-inflammatory effect of indomethacin.