TERATOGENIC EFFECTS OF LEAD ACETATE ON KIDNEY

Authors

  • R Jabeen
  • M Tahir
  • S Waqas

Abstract

Background: Lead remains a considerable occupational and public health problem, which is known tocause a number of adverse effects in both men and women. Conflicting reports have appeared on leadinduced nephrotoxicity in experimental studies in the past. There is hardly any work on its teratogeniceffects on kidney. Present study was therefore designed to investigate the effects of lead acetate ondeveloping kidney. Methods: Twelve mice were used as experimental model and were divided intotwo groups of six animals each; group A served as control group and B was used as an experimentalgroup. Lead acetate (10 mg/kg) dissolved in 0.02 ml of distilled water was administered as a singledaily dose orally to group B whereas weight related amount of distilled water was given to group A forthe entire period of experiment. On 18th day of gestation foetuses were dissected free of uterine wallunder the dissecting microscope and were sacrificed; kidneys were removed and fixed in 10%formalin, dehydrated in ascending grades of alcohol, cleared in xylene and infiltrated with filteredparaffin. The paraffin blocks were made and five micron thin sections were obtained using a rotarymicrotome. The sections were stained with Hematoxylin and eosin and, PAS; these were examinedunder light microscope. Results: Significant decrease in cortical thickness was observed which variedfrom 578.6±1.4 µm in group A to 515.6±5 µm in group B (p<0.001). Diameter of renal corpusclesvaried from 57.7±0.07 µm in group A to 50.5±0.07 µm in group B (p<0.001). Moderate cortical tubularatrophy showing thickening of endothelial basement membrane in glomeruli, desquamated epitheliumwith degenerated nuclei in proximal and distal tubules were observed in group B in contrast to group A.Conclusion: The results of the investigation indicated that lead acetate administration to the damsproduced deleterious effects on the developing kidney in mice.Keywords: Lead acetate, nephrotoxicity

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Published

2010-03-01