Effect of garlic on toluene-induced biochemical and histopathological effects in albino rats.

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Biology, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah,Saudi Arabia.

2 Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Fayoum University, Fayoum, Egypt.

Abstract

The present study aims to study the effect of garlic extract on toluene inhalation at very low dose, induced hematological, biochemical and histological alterations in liver of albino rats. Animals were divided into 4 groups.Group 1 (G1) served ascontrols,G2 given garlic aqueous extract,G3 inhaled toluene vapor and G4 given garlic plusinhalation of toluene vapor. Animals were sacrificed after 2and 4weeks of treatment. The results showed that exposing animals to toluene induced significant decrease in red blood cell count (RBCs),hemoglobin (HGB),and blood platelets (PLT).On the other hand, the hematocrit percentage (HCT) and white blood cells(WBCs) count increased. Moreover, transaminases(ALT and AST) and gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) were increased in the sera of treated animals.Histological examination of liver of treated rats showed leukocytic infiltrations, congestion of blood vessels,cytoplasmic vacuolations of hepatocytes and fatty degeneration.Treated kidney in rats of G3 showed glomerular tufts congestion; renal space narrowing and epithelia of some renal tubules were degenerated with hemorrhage between them. To some extent, an improvement was observed in the kidney of the recovery group. Treating animals with garlic plus toluene caused an improvement in the biochemical and histological alterations in albino rats.It could be concluded that the protective effect of garlic may be attributed to the presence of organosulfur compounds which have antioxidant and detoxifying properties.

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