Abstract
Pentoxifylline has several actions that improve blood rheology and tissue perfusion and may therefore potentially be applicable to diabetic neuropathy. The aims of this study were to ascertain whether 2 weeks of treatment with pentoxifylline could correct nerve conduction velocity and blood flow deficits in 6-week streptozotocin-diabetic rats and to examine whether the effects were blocked by co-treatment with the cyclooxygenase inhibitor, flurbiprofen, or the nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, NG-nitro-ʟ-arginine. Diabetic deficits in sciatic motor and saphenous sensory nerve conduction velocity were 56.5% and 69.8% corrected, respectively, with pentoxifylline treatment. Sciatic endoneurial blood flow was approximately halved by diabetes and this deficit was 50.4% corrected by pentoxifylline. Flurbiprofen co-treatment markedly attenuated these actions of pentoxifylline on nerve conduction and blood flow whereas NG-nitro-ʟ-arginine was without effect. Thus, pentoxifylline treatment confers neurovascular benefits in experimental diabetic neuropathy, which are linked at least in part to cyclooxygenasemediated metabolism.
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