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Effect of chronic oral administration of chloroquine on the histology of the heart in Wistar rats

Izunya AM, Nwaopara AO, Anyanwu LC, Odike MAC, Oaikhena GA, Bankole JK, Okhiai O

The effect of chronic oral administration of chloroquine, an antimalarial and antirheumatic drug on the histology of the heart in Wistar rats was investigated. Ten Wistar rats were randomly grouped into two, control and treated. The treated group rats were administered 20mg/kg body wt, weekly of chloroquine for 4 weeks while the control group rats were given distilled water for 4 weeks. On day 29 of the experiment, the rats were weighed and sacrificed. The hearts were carefully dissected out and quickly fixed in 10% formal saline for routine histological study after H&E method. The histological findings indicated that the treated sections of the hearts showed moderate hypertrophy of the cardiomyocytes when compared with the control. Thus, our result suggests that though chloroquine may be a widely used antimalarial and antirheumatic drug, its chronic administration may result in cardiotoxicity. Therefore, it is recommended that the drug be prescribed with caution in patients with cardiac abnormality, such as cardiomyopathy and further studies to corroborate this observation should be carried.