Intestinal damage is one of the major toxic effects of methotrexate (MTX). The aim of this studywas to evaluate the protective effects of quercetin on MTX-induced small intestine damage inrats. Thirty-six male Wistar rats were randomly allocated into four equal groups. The first groupwas the control. The second group, only quercetin (15 mg/kg) was administeredintraperitoneally for 15 consecutive days. The third group, MTX was applied as a single dose(20 mg/kg) intraperitoneally at fifteenth day. The fourth group, quercetin was givenintraperitoneally in addition to MTX application until the rats were killed. All animals weresacrificed 4 days after the MTX injection for histopathological examination and the assay forserum total antioxidant activity (TAA), tissue reduced glutathione (GSH), malondialdehyde(MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) andglutathione reductase (GR) levels. Microscopically, jejunal tissues of the MTX treated groupshowed severe villus shortening and blunting, inflammatory cell infiltration and hemorrhage inlamina propria, as well as epithelial cell necrosis, however, administration of quercetinalleviated the jejunal damage. Levels of TAA, GSH, SOD, CAT, GPx and GR decreased in theMTX received group, but increased significantly (P=0.00) in the quercetin+MTX groups.Quercetin significantly (P=0.00) decreased MDA levels which was increased by MTXtreatment. The results showed that quercetin due to its antioxidant properties may protect thesmall intestine of rats from MTX-induced damage.
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