Dnipro State Medical University, Dnipro, Ukraine
Introduction. Cadmium is an essential trace element known to be one of the most toxic heavy metals. Acute hepatotoxicity caused by exposure to cadmium provokes morphological changes in cells, leading to cell apoptosis and necrosis. Unlike cadmium, zinc is an indispensable metal that supports a wide range of biological processes.
Objective. Determine the degree of accumulation of cadmium and zinc in the liver of pregnant rats. and hepatotoxicity of cadmium chloride during chronic intragastric administration throughout the entire period of pregnancy in rats.
Materials and methods.Female Wistar rats with a dated gestation period were administered a cadmium chloride solution (at a dose of 2.0 mg/kg) to the females per os daily throughout pregnancy. Quantitative determination of cadmium and zinc was performed using atomic emission analysis on an EMAS-200 CCD spectrometer. The enzymatic activity of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) was determined according to the method for determining the specified enzymes according to Reitman-Frenkel. The reliability of statistical studies was assessed using the Student's t-test.
The results. In the group of isolated administration of cadmium chloride for 13 days, the content of cadmium in the liver increased 60 times. In the group of combined administration of cadmium chloride and zinc succinate, the concentration of cadmium decreased by 28% compared to the group of isolated administration. With isolated administration of cadmium chloride, there was a significant increase in the concentration of zinc in the liver (2.1 times) compared to the control. In the group of combined administration, the content of zinc significantly increased by 23% compared to the group of isolated administration. In the group of isolated administration of cadmium chloride, a hepatotoxic effect was observed, which is confirmed by an increase in the activity of the enzymes ALT (by 34%) and AST (by 16%), With the combined administration of the test compounds, the activity of ALT and AST decreased by 22% and 10%, respectively.
Conclusions. Joint chronic administration of zinc and cadmium helps to reduce the concentration of cadmium in the liver of pregnant female rats. Isolated administration of cadmium chloride increases the activity of ALT and AST, which may be associated with a violation of the integrity of liver cells. When a complex of cadmium chloride and zinc succinate is administered, the activity of these enzymes decreases almost to the control level.
Keywords: cadmium, zinc, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, liver, pregnancy
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