The local effects of bevacizumab on the formation of fibrosis on rats induced BY urethral trauma

Introduction and Objective: In this study, our goal is to investigate the effects of bevacizumab on fibrosis developed during the healing of traumatic urethral injury induced in rats. Materials and Methods: In our study, 20 Wistar rats were used. The rats were divided into two groups, the control group and treatment group. On anesthetized rats, an incision was applied to the ventral surface of the urethra in the way it damaged the urethral tissue starting approximately 1.0 cm from the external urethral meatus, using a slightly bent 20 G PVC (Peripheral Venous Catheter). Only 0.09% NaCl was administered intraurethral way to the control group whereas 5 mg/1cc bevacizumab diluted with 0.09% NaCl was administered to the treatment group as intraurethral irrigation. The irrigation process continued for five days. All rats were sacrificed at the 28th day. After carrying out penectomy, a histopathological analysis was performed. The statistical analysis was performed with the help of "SPSS 16.0 for Windows" (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) software using the Mann-Whitney U test. Results: The study was completed with 9 rats from the control group and 10 rats from the treatment group. In the control group, mild and moderate fibrosis was detected in eight rats except in the urethral tissue of one rat. While in the treatment group six rats were detected with mild fibrosis, no fibrosis was detected in four others. Despite the reduction in urethral fibrosis that was observed in the treatment group, compared with the control group, there was no statistically significant difference between them (p> 0.05). Conclusion: More studies involving different doses of bevacizumab are recommended to investigate its effects on urethral fibrosis and therefore on the development of urethral stricture. Key Words: Urethral Injury, Fibrosis, Bevacizumab