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Abstract
BackgroundArsenic is widely distributed in the environment and has been found to be associated with the various health related problems including skin lesions, cancer, cardiovascular and immunological disorders. The fruit extract of Emblica officinalis (amla) has been shown to have anti-oxidative and immunomodulatory properties. In view of increasing health risk of arsenic, the present study has been carried out to investigate the protective effect of amla against arsenic induced oxidative stress and apoptosis in thymocytes of mice.MethodsMice were exposed to arsenic (sodium arsenite 3 mg/kg body weight p.o.) or amla (500 mg/kg body weight p.o.) or simultaneously with arsenic and amla for 28 days. The antioxidant enzyme assays were carried out using spectrophotometer and generation of ROS, apoptotic parameters, change in cell cycle were carried out using flow cytometer following the standard protocols.ResultsArsenic exposure to mice caused a significant increase in the lipid peroxidation, ROS production and decreased cell viability, levels of reduced glutathione, the activity of superoxide dismutase, catalase, cytochrome c oxidase and mitochondrial membrane potential in the thymus as compared to controls. Increased activity of caspase-3 linked with apoptosis assessed by the cell cycle analysis and annexin V/PI binding was also observed in mice exposed to arsenic as compared to controls. Co-treatment with arsenic and amla decreased the levels of lipid peroxidation, ROS production, activity of caspase-3, apoptosis and increased cell viability, levels of antioxidant enzymes, cytochrome c oxidase and mitochondrial membrane potential as compared to mice treated with arsenic alone.ConclusionsThe results of the present study exhibits that arsenic induced oxidative stress and apoptosis significantly protected by co-treatment with amla that could be due to its strong antioxidant potential.
Highlights
Arsenic is widely distributed in the environment and has been found to be associated with the various health related problems including skin lesions, cancer, cardiovascular and immunological disorders
Exposure to arsenic in mice caused a significant decrease in body weight (25%, p < 0.01) and thymus weight (34%, p < 0.001) as compared to controls suggesting the general toxic effect of the arsenic and could be associated with decreased food consumption and water intake
Co-treatment with arsenic and amla decreased the ROS generation (52%, p < 0.01) in thymus as compared to mice treated with arsenic alone suggested the antioxidant and free radical scavenging activity of amla
Summary
Arsenic is widely distributed in the environment and has been found to be associated with the various health related problems including skin lesions, cancer, cardiovascular and immunological disorders. Arsenic is considered as an environmental contaminant and widely distributed in the environment due to its natural existence and anthropogenic applications [1,2]. Epidemiological studies have suggested that exposure to arsenic in humans may attributed to various immune related disorders [10,11,12,13]. In utero exposure to arsenic has been shown to suppress the immune mediated cells and impaired child thymic development associated with increased morbidity in children [14]. Increased placental inflammatory response, reduced placental T cells and altered levels of cord blood cytokines linked with fetal death, impaired infant health associated with enhanced oxidative stress have been reported following exposure to arsenic [16,17]. Numerous studies have reported that exposure to inorganic arsenic increased the frequency of micronuclei, chromosome aberrations and sister chromatid exchanges both in humans and experimental animals [26,27]
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