Tehran University Medical Journal

---

Background: Bone remodeling has always been the goal of surgeons for a long time. Recently, it was shown that statins that are commonly prescribed for lowering cholesterol also have beneficial effects on bone healing. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to evaluate the probable effects of atorvastatin on osteogenesis in the rat femur.

Methods: This experimental study was conducted on 30 male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. The animals were divided randomly into one control and two experiment groups. After induction of anesthesia, a hole of 2 mm in diameter was made in femur width. The control group received physiological serum but the experiment groups one and two, respectively, received 10 and 20 mg/kg/PO of atorvastatin on daily basis. After euthanizing the rats, histopathological and histomorphometrical evaluations of the bones were performed 45 days after the intervention.

Results: In the control group, the defects seemed to be filled with woven bone and bone marrow, depictive of a poor osteogenic activity. In the experiment groups, many osteoblast groupings and young bone trabeculae had been formed and bone trabeculae were more organized. Histomorphometric results, showed that atorvastatin had significantly promoted bone healing in the experiment groups compared with the controls (P<0.001). Moreover, the analysis showed that atorvastatin had more significant effects in group three receiving high doses of the medication in comparison with group two (P<0.001).

Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that atorvastatin is capable of stimulating osteogenesis in rats.

---

Background: Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is the most frequent oral cancer. Protec-tive effects of the consumption of vegetables and fruits on various forms of cancer in-cluding oral cancer have been determined. Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) because of its lycopene and bioflavonoids contents possesses anti-carcinogenic properties. The aim of this study was to evaluate the preventive effects of tomato pulp on pre-neoplastic changes induced by 4-Nitroquinoline-1-oxid (4-NQO) in epithelial cells of lingual mucosa in the rats. Methods: Forty-eight male Wistar rats were randomly allocated into four equal groups. Group 1 served as control. Groups 2 to 4 assigned to receive 30 ppm 4-NQO in drinking water for 12 consecutive weeks. When the feeding of 4-NQO was started to the rats of groups 3 and 4, they received tomato pulp (20 and 40 ml/kg bw) daily through the oral gavage. Finally, histological evaluations for carcinogenesis were performed for tongues epithelial tissue. Results: There were no pathological alterations in epithelial tissue of lingual mucosa in control rats. In the epithelial cells of lingual mucosa of 4-NQO treated rats, premalig-nant alterations appeared after 12 weeks of the last application of the drug. Administration of tomato pulp at both doses (20 and 40 ml/kg bw) during the experiment reduced the severity of the lesions, as well as caused a significant reduction in the frequency of pre-neoplastic lesions of tongue epithelial cells (P= 0.024 and P= 0.008). The incidence of severe epithelial cells dysplasia of lingual mucosa in the high dose treatment group was significantly smaller than of low dose treatment group (P= 0.037). Conclusion: The results obtained showed that tomato pulp is effective in inhibiting the development of neoplasms in epithelial cells of lingual mucosa induced by 4-NQO in the rat.