Acute Toxic Effect Mechanism Of Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether On Central Nervous System In Rats

Objective To evaluate the acute neurotoxicity of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), an oxygenate that is added to unleaded gasoline to enhance octane and promote combustion, on central nervous system of rats. And then to explore the acute toxic effect site and mechanism of MTBE on central nervous system by detecting the c-fos genie expression , the variation of the neurotransmitter GABA and the activity of Na⁺,K⁺-ATPase,Ca²⁺-ATPase in cerebral cortex, dorsal thalamus , hypothalamus, cerebellar cortex.Methods 72 adult SD rats were randomly divided into control and threeexperiment groups. The MTBE exposed doses were 700,1 050,1 400mg/kg.bw and the control group was used normal saline 1 400mg/kg.bw respectively injected by abdominal cavity. The immunohistochemical method (SABC method) was used to check the expression of Fos protein reflecting the acute toxic target site of MTBE on central nervous systerm and to detect the change of the neurotransmitter GABA in the cerebellar cortex. The spectrophotometric method was used to measure the activity change of the Na⁺,K⁺-ATPase,Ca²⁺- ATPase in the cerebral cortex to reflect the effects of the energy metabolism of the nerve cell. The pathological study (Nissl staining) and immunohistochemical method (GFAP method) were performed with optical microscopes to observe the histopathological changes in nerve cell and neuroglia cell of the cerebral cortex, dorsal thalamus, hypothalamus and cerebellar cortex .Results 1. The Fos protein expression of central nervous system such as cerebral cortex ,dorsal thalamus ,hypothalamus and cerebellar cortex,was observed. The resuts showed the content of Fos protein in cerebral cortex ,dorsal thalamus ,hypothalamus and cerebellar cortex increase evidently.especially in cerebral cortex and cerebellar cortex. The content of the Fos protein expression...