Histological and biochemical study of the effects of cadmium alone or associated with selenium in the rat

This work was carried out to investigate the effect of cadmium [Cd] given alone in a subacute dose or in association with selenium [Se] on the structure of the rat liver, kidney, heart and cerebellum. In addition, the levels of the enzyme glutathione peroxidase [GBH-Px] and reduced glutathione [GSH]as lipid peroxidation were assessed biochemically in both cases. Ten days after Cd treatments, the effect extended to involve all the investigated organs. However, the liver was the least affected one. It showed clumping of the cellular organelles mitochondrial inclusions and accumulation of cytoplasmic fibrillar material. The effect on the kidney was highly destructive mainly involving the proximal convoluted tubules and to a lesser extent the distal convoluted tubules. The heart showed mitochondrial destruction and degeneration of the myofilaments. In the cerebellar cortex, there was loss of the organelles particularly in the peripheral part. These changes were correlated with the oxidative stress induced by Cd. This was confirmed by the marked depletion of GSH, reduction of GSH-Px and increased lipid peroxidation detected biochemically

Histopathological changes in the ovaries and uteri of female mice after chronic adminstration of morphine and butorphanol tartrate [stadol]

This work was done to study the drastic effects of narcotics on female genital system. Morphine and stadol, the two widely used narcotics in medical fields, were used in this study. They were injected intraperitoneally twice daily for ten days to adult female non- pregnant mice. It was observed that both drugs caused histological changes in the ovaries of treated animals in the form of decrease in the number of primary follicles with increase in the number of atretic follicles and suppression of maturation to Graffian follicles. In addition, both morphine and stadol administration caused histological changes in the uteri of treated mice. These changes included thinning of uterine wall, the endometrial glands are scarce, the endometrial stroma is loose and the myometrium showed marked atrophied thin muscles. The histopathological changes in the ovaries and uteri were more marked in morphine treated animals than in stadol treated group