Ultrastructural changes of the renal tubular cells and hepatocytes of neonatal rats suckled milk from mothers subjected to subchronic toxicity of cadmium chloride

ABSTRACT

Neonatal off springs from female rats administered cadmium chloride by the oral route [0.5 mg.kg[-1]. day[-1] throughout their entire gestation and lactation periods. The pups were nursed their mothers until they weaned at the age of 28 days. At the end of the experiment, neonatal rats were anaesthetized by ether, then dissected and liver and kidney tissues were rapidly removed and processed for transmission electron microscopic examination. The uItrastructural observations of the proximal convoluted tubules were the absent of the apical microvilli, basal striation and endocytotic-lysosomal apparatus. Meanwhile hepatocytes showed few, sporadic mitochondria in concomitant with ill developed rough and smooth endoplasmic reticula. In addition to the apoptosis of hepatocytes. In conclusion, cadmium was transmitted via milk to the rat pups and potentially toxic to proximal convoluted tubular cells and to less extent to hepatocytes with multifactor mechanisms of cadmium toxicity