Pancreatic and chromosomal toxic effects of dimethoate in adult male albino rats

ABSTRACT

Dimethoate is an organophosphate insecticide with numerous uses in agricultural crops and ornamentals. The extensive use of dimethoate may pose a health hazard to animals and humans because of its persistence in soil and crops. This study was conducted to evaluate the pancreatic and chromosomal toxic effects of dimethoate in adult male albino rats. Sixty rats weighing 180-200gm were equally divided into 3 groups group I [negative control], group II [positive control] and group III [dimethoate].The period of the study extended for 2 months, then 10 rats from each group were sacrificed for biochemical analysis [serum glucose, insulin, amylase and pseudocholinestrase] and pancreatic histopathology. The other 10 rats were used for chromosomal analysis. The results of this study showed no significant difference between the negative and positive control groups. However, there was significant difference in all measured biochemical parameters between the dimethoate and the negative control groups. The histopathological examination of pancreas revealed vacular degeneration in cells of the acini and 8- cells of islet's of langerhans with dark stained nuclei. Pancreatic acini showed loss of basal basophilia and acini architecture. Chromosomal analysis showed significant numerical aberration [hypoploidy] and increase in chromosomal structural aberrations [gaps, fragments, deletion and clumping]. It was concluded that dimethoate has pancreatic toxic effects and could cause chromosomal aberrations in adult albino rats