Abstract
Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) are used in many industries and medications, increasing the exposure to ZnO-NPs that may have harmful side effects. So, we studied the hepatotoxic effect of ZnO-NPs and explored the role of vitamin E in the reduction of their toxic effects. Forty male albino rats, divided into four groups (10 rats per group) were included in the study; control group, ZnO-NPs intoxicated group, vitamin E control group and vitamin E protected ZnO-NPs intoxicated group. ZnO-NPs were given in a dose of 400 mg / kg body weight for seven days. Vitamin E was given in a dose of 100 mg / kg body weight for four weeks. Our results showed that ZnO-NPs induced liver damage indicated by significant increase of serum ALT and AST and significant decrease of serum albumin and total protein levels. Moreover, ZnO-NPs induced oxidative stress in the liver suggested by significant elevation of malondialdehyde level and significant reduction of reduced glutathione level, glutathione peroxidase activity and glutathione peroxidase-1 expression in liver homogenate. Furthermore, ZnO-NPs caused significant increase in the serum pro-inflammatory biomarker, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF- α). On the other hand, vitamin E alleviated the liver damage, oxidative stress and the elevated serum TNF- α induced by ZnO-NPs.
Highlights
Nanoparticles (NPs) possess different physical and chemical properties, making them extremely important for and to be used on a wide scale of biological, medical and industrial applications [46]
The current study showed non significant changes of Serum ALT, AST, total proteins and albumin levels in vitamin E control group compared to the control group
Significant reduction of Serum ALT and AST levels and significant elevation of serum total proteins and albumin levels were found in vitamin E protected group compared to Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) intoxicated group
Summary
Nanoparticles (NPs) possess different physical and chemical properties, making them extremely important for and to be used on a wide scale of biological, medical and industrial applications [46]. Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) are widely used in industrial and costumer products including sunscreens, toothpastes, paint formulations, as food additive and as photocatalyst for pollution control [48]. NPs can enter the human body through different routes as ingestion and inhalation [13]. Due to their small size, NPs can translocate through epithelial and endothelial cells into the circulatory and lymphatic systems to reach body tissues and organs as liver, kidneys, heart, spleen and bone marrow where they induce cell damage by oxidative stress and/or organelle injury [2, 45, 61]
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