STUDY OF SOME IMMUNOLOGICAL AND HEMATOLOGICAL IMPACTS INDUCED BY CLOMAZONE IN SWISS ALBINO MICE AND THE PROTECTIVE EFFECT OF VITAMIN C

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The present study aimed to evaluate the probable perturbations produced by herbicide clomazone (CMZ) on immunological and hematological indices and to assess the protective role of vitamin C in alleviating CMZ-induced immunological and hematological toxicity in male Swiss albino mice. To achieve this goal, Swiss albino mice (weighing 25-34 g and each group 10 animals) were administrated phosphate buffer saline (PBS), CMZ (46 µM/kg; 1/20 of the 96h LD50 for an intraperitoneal dose) and/or vitamin C (1136 µM/kg) daily intraperitoneally (i.p.) for 4 weeks. By the end of the 4th week, immunological and hematological parameters: erythrocyte (RBC) count, hemoglobin (Hb) percent, hematocrit (Hct) content, platelets (Plt) count, leucocyte (WBC) count, absolute number of neutrophils, lymphocyte and monocytes and count of splenocytes, thymocytes and bone marrow cells were evaluated. To investigate the influence of immunoglobulin (Ig) isotypes production activity of CMZ, naive splenocytes were inoculated for 24 h into media supplemented with PBS, CMZ (4.6 µM/well) and/or vitamin C (113.6 µM/well) and the concentrations of IgA, IgG and IgM were measured by ELISA. As a result, 96h LD50 of CMZ was estimated at 911 µM/kg. Exposure to CMZ alone significantly decreased RBC count, Hb content, Hct%, WBC count, absolute numbers of lymphocytes and monocytes, Plt count, total numbers of splenocytes, thymocytes and bone marrow cells when compared to their values in PBS-treated mice. Contrary, Absolute number of neutrophils was significantly higher in CMZ-treated mice than in PBS-treated mice. The concentrations of IgA, IgG and IgM in CMZ-cultured splenocytes were significantly higher than in PBS-cultured splenocytes. Pre-treatment of vitamin C to CMZ-exposed mice mildly ameliorated the immunological and hematological perturbations of CMZ toxicity. To conclude, it appears that vitamins C mildly alleviated CMZ–induced immunological and hematological toxicity but it was not completely protective.