CHAPTER THREE

3.0. MATERIALS AND METHODS

3.1. ANIIMALS

Twenty (20) adult male Wistar rats (150-200g) were used in this study and maintained in a 12h light and
12h dark cycle. They were housed in well aerated plastic cages in the Research Animal House Holding
Unit, Osun state university, Osogbo.

3.2 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

Animals were fed with standard rat chow (Topfeeds) and tap water ad libitum. Rats were allowed to
acclimatized for two weeks and then randomised into four groups (n=5). Sodium acetate was dissolved in
water to achieve specific doses and administered daily for 14 days. Doxorubicin was given
intraperitoneally on day 8 of the study.

The dosages were as follows:

Group 1: rats were given (Iml/kg bwt) of normal saline.

Group 2: rats were administered sodium acetate (200mg/kg bwt) only

Group 3: rats were administered doxorubicin (7mg/kg bwt) only

Group 4: rats were administered acetate (200mg/kg bwt) and doxorubicin (7mg/kg bwt)

At the termination of experiment, rats were anaesthetized with ketamine-xylazine () and blood was
withdrawn via cardiac puncture and organs of interest were carefully excised, cleared of adherent tissue,
immersed in phosphate buffer saline, homogenized and spun at 15000 rpm for 5min at 4°C to obtain
supernatant.

3.3 STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

Data obtained were expressed as mean ± SEM and analysed using graph pad prism (version 5.0).
Comparison of mean values were made by one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) followed by Tukey's
posthoc test for pair wise comparison and p< 0.05 was considered significant.