EJMS

Abstract

Background: Cadmium is considered an important environmental pollutant which is present in the soil, water, air, food and cigarette smoke. Cadmium causes poisoning in various tissues of humans and animals. Free radical scavengers and antioxidants are useful in protection against cadmium toxicity. Vitamin C is a low-molecular weight antioxidant which protects cells against oxidative stress. Aim of work: to investigate the toxic effect of cadmium on the jejunal mucosa and the protective role of vitamin C of adult albino rat. Materials and methods: the present study was carried out on 24 adult male albino rats, divided into 4 equal groups. group I (control rats), group II (sham control), group III (cadmium treated group) received 200 mg/kg BW cadmium chloride daily orally via gastric gavage for 7 days and group IV (vitamin C and cadmium treated group) received 250 mg/kg BW vitamin C concomitant with 200 mg/kg BW cadmium daily orally via gastric gavage for 7 days. The animals were sacrificed 24 hours after the end of the experiments. Then the small intestine of each animal was excised. Paraffin sections were prepared from the jejunum for morphological and immuno-histochemical study. Results: Light microscopic examination of the rat jejunal mucosa of group III demonstrated distortion of the villus architecture, shedding of the covering epithelium, cystic dilatation of the intestinal crypts and dilatation of the blood vessels. The villi appeared short and fused together with loss the brush border. There were increased number of goblet cells, inflammatory monocellular infiltration was found and marked pleomoprphic changes in the epithelial cells. There were weak PAS reaction and increase of COX II immunoreactivity which was statistically significant as compared to the results of group I. Group IV (vitamin C and cadmium treated group) revealed remarkable improvement of the histological structure of the jejunal mucosa and preservation of the normal appearance of the villi and intestinal crypts. Moreover, there were strong positive PAS reaction and moderate COX II immuno-expression of the jejunal mucosa. Conclusion: vitamin C could protect the jejunal mucosa against cadmium induced toxicity in adult male albino rat.