Iliac artery myointimal hyperplasia in rabbits submitted to angioplasty and treated with Moringa oleifera.

Objective: to assess post-angioplasty myointimal hyperplasia in iliac artery of rabbits treated with extract of Moringa oleifera leaves.

Methods: we conducted a randomized trial in laboratory animals for five weeks of follow-up, developed in the Vivarium of Pharmaceutical Technology Laboratory of the Universidade Federal da Paraíba. We used rabbits from the New Zealand breed, subjected to a hypercholesterolemic diet and angioplasty of the external iliac artery, randomized into two groups: M200 Group (n=10) - rabbits treated with 200mg/kg/day of Moringa oleifera leaves extract orally; SF group (n=10) - rabbits treated with 0.9% saline orally. After five weeks, the animals were euthanized and the iliac arteries prepared for histology. Histological sections were analyzed by digital morphometry. Statistical analysis was performed using the Student's t test. The significance level was 0.05.

Results: there was no significant difference in myointimal hyperplasia between M200 and SF groups when comparing the iliac arteries submitted to angioplasty.

Conclusion: there was no difference of myointimal hyperplasia between groups treated with saline and Moringa oleifera after angioplasty.