Changes induced in the kidney of rat empryo due to the combined treatment of nicotine and gamma-rays

ABSTRACT

This work was done to investigate the synergestic influence of gamma- rays and nicotine on the fetal kidney of albino rat. Pregnant female albino rats were used in this experiment. The animals were divided into 6 groups, the 1st group was used as control. While, the 2nd was injected with nicotine [0.5 mg/100 g body weight] subcutaneously. The injection started one week prior to mating and continued to the 20th day of pregnancy. Animals of the 3rd group were exposed to gamma-rays [3 Gy] on day 6 of gestation, whereas, the 4th group was irradiated on day 12 of gestation. Animals of the 5th group were treated with nicotine, then irradiated [3 Gy] on the 6th day of pregnancy. The last group was treated with nicotine as then irradiated with [3 Gy] on day 12 of gestation. The histopathological changes recorded in this study included the degeneration of the Bowman's capsules, vacuolation of the cytoplasm, also some pyknotic nuclei in irradiated and nicotine groups. These changes became much more marked in groups exposed to gamma-rays during nicotine treatment where fibrosis and widened distal convoluted tubules were clearly detected. In histochemical studies, it has been found that the alkaline phosphatase activity was reduced with exposure to gamma-rays or nicotine treatment. While, a marked reduction in this level was obtained in the synergestic effect of nicotine and irradiation