Homeopathy Effects in Morphology of Parotid Glands of Irradiated Rats

Objectives: To evaluate the effect of a homeopathic solution in the morphology of salivar parotid glands of irradiated rats.
Methods: 150 rats were randomly divided into 6 groups of 25 animals: G1 - control (sham-irradiated); G2 - irradiated control; G3 – 0.25 ml of a hydro-alcoholic solution; G4 – same solution of G3 + irradiation; G5 - 0.25 ml of a homeopathic 15 CH X-ray hydro-alcoholic solution; G6 - same solution of G5 + irradiation. Control groups received 0.25 ml of saline solution. All hydro-alcoholic solutions were prepared with 30% alcohol. Treatments were kept for 14 days and on the seventh day, the animals of irradiated groups were anesthetized and submitted to a single dose of 15 Gy in the head and neck region. After 12 hours, 3, 10, 17, and 24 days of irradiation, the animals were killed and submitted to quantitative morphometric analysis. The number of acini and salivary ducts in the parotid gland over the time were estimated. Results were compared by Kruskal-Wallis’ (Dunn) test among groups and by Friedman’s test along time considering each group. Significance level was set at 5%.
Results: Acini number (mean±SEM) after 24 days was 76.5±1.24 for G1, 66.6±5.35 for G2, 78.3±1.93 for G3, 62.1±0.83 for G4, 77.7±2.52 for G5, and 67.4±3.32 for G6. At same time, the number of ducts was 13.1±0.93, 18.3±1.43, 13.5±1.45, 20.9±0.91, 14.0±1.43, and 16.1±0.72 respectively for G1, G2, G3, G4, G5, and G6. No significant differences were observed among groups (considering each separated time) regarding acini nor ducts. However, irradiated groups showed lower number of both acini and ducts than non-irradiated ones. A decreased number of acini and increased number of ducts were observed along the time only for Group 4.
Conclusions: Homeopathy was able to reduce the alcohol effect on acini.