Pentoxifylline has several actions that improve
blood rheology and tissue perfusion and may therefore
potentially be applicable to diabetic neuropathy.
The aims of this study were to ascertain whether 2
weeks of treatment with pentoxifylline could correct
nerve conduction velocity and blood flow deficits in
6-week streptozotocin-diabetic rats and to examine
whether the effects were blocked by co-treatment
with the cyclooxygenase inhibitor, flurbiprofen, or
the nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, NG-nitro-ʟ-arginine. Diabetic deficits in sciatic motor and saphenous
sensory nerve conduction velocity were 56.5%
and 69.8% corrected, respectively, with pentoxifylline
treatment. Sciatic endoneurial blood flow was
approximately halved by diabetes and this deficit
was 50.4% corrected by pentoxifylline. Flurbiprofen
co-treatment markedly attenuated these actions of
pentoxifylline on nerve conduction and blood flow
whereas NG-nitro-ʟ-arginine was without effect.
Thus, pentoxifylline treatment confers neurovascular
benefits in experimental diabetic neuropathy,
which are linked at least in part to cyclooxygenasemediated
metabolism.
