Histological Studies Of The Effects Of Monosodium Glutamate On The Liver Of Adult Wistar Rats

Abstract

Histological effects of Monosodium glutamate (MSG) commonly used as food additive on the liver of adult Wistar rats were carefully studied. The rats of both sexes (n=24), average weight of 185g were randomly assigned into two treatments (n=16) and control (n=8) groups. The rats in the treatment groups received 3g and 6g of MSG thoroughly mixed with their feeds for fourteen days, while the control rats received equal amounts of feeds without MSG added. The rats were fed with growers' mash purchased from Edo Feeds and Flour Mill Ltd, Ewu, Edo State and were given water liberally. The rats were sacrificed on day fifteen of the experiment. The liver was carefully dissected out and quickly fixed in 10% formal saline for routine histological study after H&E method. The histological findings after H&E methods indicated that the treated sections of the liver showed evidence of dilatations of the central veins, which contained lysed red blood cells and cyto-architectural distortions of the hepatocytes, centrilobular hemorrhagic necrosis, atrophic and degenerative changes with the group that received 6g of MSG more severe. These findings indicate that MSG consumption may have some deleterious effects on the liver of adult Wistar rats at higher doses and by extension may affect the functions of the liver. It is recommended that further studies aimed at corroborating these findings be carried out.