Antioxidant Supplementation with N-Acetylcysteine as a Protection Against Cisplatin-Induced Motor Impairment in Rats

The aim of this study was to estimate a potential beneficial influence of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) in the treatment of cisplatin-induced motor impairment. We included 32 male Wistar albino rats, divided into 4 equal groups: control (received saline on the 1st and 5th day), cisplatin – CIS (received saline on the 1st and cisplatin 7.5 mg/kg i.p. on the 5th day), NAC (received NAC on the 1st and 5th day, 500 mg/kg i.p.), and CIS+NAC (received NAC on the 1st and 5th day, 500 mg/kg i.p. and cisplatin 7.5 mg/kg i.p. on the 5th day) group. Motor performance was estimated by rotarod, grip wire, open field (OF), elevated plus maze (EPM) and beamwalking (BW) tests on the 10th day. Cisplatin administration resulted in decreased motor performance in all tests, except for BW test, compared to the control group. NAC supplementation on its own had no significant effect on motor performance parameters. However, simultaneous administration of NAC along with cisplatin reversed negative impact of cisplatin in rotarod, OF and EPM tests, with no significant effect on the results obtained in grip wire test. The results of this study confirmed numerous motoric manifestations of cisplatin-induced neurotoxicity in rats. However, the decline in most of the estimated parameters was successfully prevented by antioxidant supplementation with NAC.