Effect of Indomethacin on Trypsin Activity in the Norway Rat, Rattus Norvegicus (Rodentia: Muridae)

Rats belong to genus Rattus, and breed rapidly. Rodents pose the most serious threat to agriculture, humans, and destroy stored items and documents. All Other methods of rodent control are inefficient. Indomethacin, which is cheap with minimal side effects to man and other animals, causes 100% mortality in the rats experimentally, but with unexplained accumulation of undigested food in their stomach. This research aimed at determining the effects of indomethacin on trypsin activity in rats. One hundred and fifty female rats were divided into six groups of twenty five rats each randomly. Group A was used as control, while the rest (B,C,D,E,F) served as experimental groups and were given varying indomethacin doses of 12.5mg/Kg, 25mg/Kg, 50mg/Kg, 100mg/Kg and 150mg/Kg respectively, with five rats in each group euthanized at different time intervals of (1, 2, 4, 8 and 12) hours. The rats were dissected, the gut contents removed, and the digesta from the duodenum prepared for enzyme activity analysis using spectrophotometry. The results showed that indomethacin causes a decrease in trypsin activity in all experimental the groups. The group given the highest dose (150mg/Kg) had mean the least trypsin activity at 3±0.1 µg/ml, while the group given the least dose (12.5mg/Kg) recorded the highest mean trypsin activity at 113.5±0.03. The group euthanized after one hour had 113.2±0.03 µg/ml activity, while trypsin activity after 12 hours was 6.3±0.10 µg/ml. The means in each group were significantly different at p<0.05. The decrease in trypsin activity is directly proportional to the increased dose of indomethacin administered and the length of time taken after its administration.