Comparison of analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects of indomethacin and ozone in paw edema formed in rats

Acute inflammation, which may appear as systemic or local, is a condition presenting with tissue damage, edema, hyperemia, pain and loss of function. For the time being, available treatment approaches are not sufficient. Nowadays, numerous agents are being used for prevention of inflammation. However, there still exists a search for an effective and definite treatment modality in common and serious inflammations including sepsis and other inflammatory disorders.Ozone, which was used for disinfection and sterilization in the past, have still been in use for many disorders where available medical therapy is insufficient; and favorable outcomes are noted. It is known that decongestion accelerates and edema reabsorption rises with medical ozone therapy. Aforementioned impacts put forth analgesic and anti-inflammatory features of medical ozone therapy.Anti-inflammatory and anti-nociceptive activity of ozone has been investigated in this study model where paw edema was formed by carrageenan in rats. It was concluded when results are taken into consideration that ,as similar to the literature, acute inflammation occurs over time and edema configuration reaches plateau after 270th minute. It was also shown that indomethacin, the reference anti-inflammatory molecule, prevented edema formation. The impacts of ozone in different doses on edema in local inflammation (figure 2) and on pain perception (figure 3, 4) were investigated.It was concluded in this study that impact of ozone on paw edema formed by carrageenan was in a dose-dependent manner. Ozone therapy of 1 µg/paw dose was shown to produce similar anti-edematous impact to that of indomethacin whereas no such impact was noted in doses of 0,5 and 1,5 µg. Besides, it was also shown that ozone therapy in a dose of 1 µg/paw yielded similar impacts on paws to that of SF therapy.Alterations on pain response appearing in nociceptive process secondary to inflammation were also observed in this study. Anti-nociceptive impact of ozone therapy in a dose of 1 µg/paw was shown to be similar to indomethacin in hot plate test. No significant anti-nociceptive efficacy was shown in other doses as it was in anti-edematous activity. No analgesic activity was noted in all ozone doses in tail-flick test. This may be explained by local hyperalgesia secondary to inflammation formed in paw in hot plaque test. Possible analgesic effect of ozone in tail pull test can only be achieved by systemic ozone application. Besides; one may consider when ozone alone can not produce analgesic activity in rats with no inflammation that analgesic effect is due to peripheral hyperalgesia. Observations regarding impact of systemic ozone on pain perception will undoubtedly contribute clarification of this matter.It may be considered that demonstration of efficacy of medical ozone ?a widely used medical agent in clinical practice- in pain reduction and treatment of local inflammation will make contribution to literature in terms of leading to novel and alternative treatment protocols.