Effect of Melatonin on Cadmium-Induced Hepatotoxicity in Male Sprague-Dawley Rats
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CHOONG-YONG KIM, MIN-JAE LEE,1 SANG MOK LEE, WON CHANG LEE and JIN SUK KIM
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Department of Veterinary Medicine and ARRC, Kon-Kuk University, 1Department of Pathology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul 143-701, Korea
Effect of melatonin on toxicity of cadmium (Cd) was studied in male SD rats co-administered daily Cd (1 mg/kg b.w., s.c.) with melatonin (10 mg/kg b.w., i.p.) for 15 days. Cd alone injection decreased GSH concentrations in the liver and RBC by 35% and 43% compared with those in saline-treatment group, but not in the kidney and whole brain. The activity of GSSG-reductase was significantly decreased in the liver of Cd alone injected rats, while melatonin given in combination with Cd failed to prevent the Cd-induced decreased activity of hepatic GSSG-reductase. However, the hepatic GSH concentration decreased by Cd alone was restored by melatonin treatment, and the melatonin also ameliorated Cd-induced histopathological changes in the liver. Therefore, data indicate that melatonin restores the reduction of hepatic GSH level induced with Cd regardless of GSSG-reductase activity, and suggests that melatonin may ameliorate Cd-induced hepatotoxicity.
Key words---
cadmium; melatonin; hepatotoxicity; glutathione
© 1998 Tohoku University Medical Press
Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 1998, 186, 205-213
Present address for Choong-Yong Kim, Ph.D., at the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Tohoku University School of Medicine, 2-1 Seiryomachi, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8575, Japan.
For reprints request, contact C. -Y. Kim at the address above.
e-mail: cykim@mail.cc.tohoku.ac.jp
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