| Inorganic mercury is a kind of toxic substance, which is widely existed in the environment. With the accelerated process of industrialization and urbanization and the aggravation of environmental pollution, the phenomenon of mercury pollution is becoming more and more serious. Excessive mercury can be accumulated in the body through drinking water, food and air, and its toxic effects on livestock and poultry has been known. The absorption of inorganic mercury in the gastrointestinal tract is very low, and it is not easy to penetrate the blood brain barrier, so kidney is the most important organ in the body, which is one of the major target organ of inorganic mercuric toxicity.The chemical name of luteolin is 3’, 4’, 5,7 four hydroxyflavone, which is widely found in vegetables, fruits, herbs, and other natural plant, and with low toxicity, no mutagenicity, antioxidant, protecting cell, anti-inflammatory, sedative, anti-tumor, and other biological effects. This study, through the establishment of the rat model of chronic Hg Cl2 poisoning, observed the effect of luteolin on renal injury which is induced by inorganic mercury in rats, provided experimental evidences for the prevention and treatment of inorganic mercury poisoning and ensured the safety of animal foods.In this study, 28 6-8 weeks old healthy male Wistar rats were randomly divided into 4 groups based on body weight: control group, Lut group, HgCl2 group, and HgCl2 + Lut group(n=7). The experiment lasted 56 days, the control group drank water; Lut group gave Lut orally(80 mg/kg body weight) from 43 rd day; Hg Cl2 group drank 80 mg/L Hg Cl2; Hg Cl2 + Lut group drank 80 mg/L Hg Cl2 and gave Lut(80 mg/kg body weight) orally from 43 rd day. The result showed that HgCl2 group’s appetite was decreased, listlessness, less exercise, the reduced amount of weight gain, the level of WBC was increased, the levels of RBC and HGB were decreased, the levels of CREA and BUN were increased, high concentration of MDA, low concentration of GSH, typical pathological lesions, and renal mercury accumulation significantly was increased. However, appetite, spirit and motion tended to return to normal, weight gain was increased, the level of WBC was decreased, the levels of RBC and HGB were increased, renal tissue oxidative pathological damage of rats treated by Hg Cl2+Lut were attenuated, and the accumulation of mercury was also significantly reduced. To further explore the effect of Lut on Hg Cl2-induced renal injury, we used the TUNEL to assay the level of renal apoptotic, measured the expression level of TNF-α of kidney by immunohistochemistry, and extracted total renal protein, which was used to determine the expression levels of Nrf2, Keap1, HO-1, NQO1, Bcl-2, Bcl-xl, Bax, P53, and NF-κB by western blot. The results showed that Hg Cl2 caused oxidative stress, renal apoptosis, and inflammatory responses, mainly as the expression levels of Nrf2, Keap1, HO-1, and NQO1 were significantly reduced, the expression levels of Bcl-2 and Bcl-xl were decreased and the expression levels of Bax and P53 were increased, and the number of apoptotic cells in kidney was increased, inflammatory cytokines such as NF-κB and TNF-α,the expression levels of which were significantly increased. After gavage Lut, the expression levels of Nrf2, Keap1, HO-1, and NQO1 were significantly increased, the number of apoptotic cells in kidney were significantly reduced, the expression levels of Bcl-2 and Bcl-xl which belonged to mitochondrial apoptosis path were increased, the expression levels of Bax and P53 were reduced, and the expression levels of inflammatory cytokines NF-κB and TNF-α were significantly reduced. Throughout our testing process, oral Lut alone had no significant effect on kidney compared with control group.In summary, luteolin reduced renal injury which is induced by inorganic mercury via adjusting oxidative stress, apoptosis, and inflammation, decreased the accumulation of inorganic mercury in the kidney, and promoted inorganic mercury to excrete with urine. |
PDF Full Text Request