Recently, oxidative stress has been implicated in the development of osteonecrosis. Here we focused on vitamins with marked antioxidant potency to see whether their use might prevent the development of osteonecrosis associated with corticosteroid administration. Fifteen male Japanese white rabbits weighing about 3.5 kg were injected once into the right gluteal muscle with methylprednisolone (MPSL) 40 mg/kg (S Group). Ten other rabbits, in addition, received consecutive daily intravenous injections of vitamin E 50 mg/kg starting from the day of MPSL administration (E Group), and 10 other animals similarly received consecutive daily intravenous injections of vitamin C 30 mg/kg (C Group). All animals were euthanized 2 weeks after MPSL administration, and femurs were extracted, and stained with hematoxylin-eosin. Blood levels of glutathione (GSH) were also measured.Introduction
Methods
