ABSTRACT
Arsenic is one of the most important current environmental toxicants. Arsenic is one of the biggest protein stress inducer in several organs and systems. One of the basic and sensitive criteria for following protein stress is assessing carbonyl and thiol groups of proteins. Therefore, we assessed protein stress that produced by sodium arsenite in chicken embryos by measuring carbonyl and thiol proteins. After 4 days of incubation, 36 fertilized eggs were candled. The eggs that had alive embryos received a single injection of 0.1 and 0.5 ppm arsenite sodium in two separate groups of 12 eggs and the rest 12 [control group] received 0.5 ml saline into the yolk sac. After 20 days of incubation, teratogenicity and external defects in embryos were investigated, one ml of embryo blood was analyzed for assaying protein thiol and carbonyl as well. Data were analyzed by SPSS [version 16] with ANOVA test [tukey]. The mean of carbonyl protein was in 0.1 ppm group 0.835, 0.5 ppm group 0.844 and control group 0.804 and this change was significant and dose dependent. In addition, the mean of thiol protein was in 0.1 ppm group 0.053, 0.5 ppm group 0.014 and control group 0.054 and this change was also significant and dose dependent. The carbonyl and thiol protein alterations in serum of embryos exposed to arsenite sodium, suggest the embryotoxicity of this agent induction of plasma carbonyl and thiol protein stress