Morphological changes of rabbit lacrimal gland cells from amiodarone administration.

BACKGROUND Amiodarone is a drug that is used for treatment of cardiac arrhythmia after cardiac ischemia. This drug as beta blocker decreases arrhythmia rate but it has many side effects on different tissues. Since there are rare reports about changes of lacrimal glands, this research has been carried out to study the morphological and ultrastructural changes of lacrimal gland cells after amiodarone administration. METHODS Male rabbits (n = 14) were divided into control and experimental groups. Experimental group were intra peritoneally injected with a daily single dose of 80 mg/kg amiodarone for two weeks. The control group only received normal saline. At the end of the injection period, the two groups were anesthetized and perfused with Karnovsky's fixative. The lacrimal glands were removed, fixed and then prepared for light and electron microscopic studies. Quantitative studies on lacrimal gland cell micrographs were performed by point counting method. The results were statistically compared between the two groups. RESULTS Light microscopic observation showed many secretory granules in the cytoplasm of the lacrimal gland cells, which were also seen in the lumen of acini. Ultrastructure study of these cells showed the presence of inclusions in their cytoplasm with homogenous and dense structure. In quantitative analysis, the volume fractions (Vv) of mitochondria and nucleus to the cell showed no differences between the two groups but the Vv of euchromatin to the nucleus was different (P<0.05 ). CONCLUSION The presented results show adverse effects of amiodarone on rabbit lacrimal gland cells.