Ascorbic acid (AA) is a naturally occurring phenolic compound with antioxidant properties used in food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical products. In this study, the effect of AA on ferric nitrilotriacetate (Fe-NTA)-induced hepatotoxicity in rats has been examined. Fe-NTA alone enhances ornithine decarboxylase activity to 4.5-fold and tritiated thymidine incorporation in DNA to 3.6-fold in livers compared with the corresponding saline-treated controls. The enhanced ornithine decarboxylase activity and DNA synthesis showed a reduction to 3.02- and 1.88-fold, respectively, at a higher dose of 2 mg AA per day per animal, compared with the Fe-NTA-treated groups. Fe-NTA treatment also enhanced the hepatic microsomal lipid peroxidation to 1.7-fold compared to saline-treated controls. These changes were reversed significantly in animals receiving pretreatment of AA. The present data shows that AA can reciprocate the toxic effects of Fe-NTA and can serve as a potent chemopreventive agent to suppress oxidant-induced tissue injury and hepatotoxicity in rats.
Ferric nitrilotriacetate (Fe-NTA) is a known renal carcinogen and has been shown to adversely induce oxidative stress and tissue toxicity after both acute and chronic exposure. Present studies were designed to study the hepatoprotective and antioxidant potential of butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), a phenolic antioxidant used in foods on ferric nitrilotriacetate (Fe-NTA) induced hepatotoxicity in rats. Male albino rats of Wistar strain (4-6 weeks old) weighing 125-150 g were used in this study. Animals were given a single dose of Fe-NTA (9 mg/kg body weight, intraperitoneal) after a week's treatment with BHA. BHA was administered orally once daily for 7 days at doses of 1 and 2 mg/animal/day. The hepatoprotective activity was assessed using various biochemical parameters as serum transaminases (alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST)) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). Fe-NTA treatment increased ALT, AST, and LDH levels significantly when compared to the corresponding saline-treated group (p < 0.001). Fe-NTA also depleted the levels of glutathione and the activities of antioxidant enzymes namely glutathione reductase and glutathione-S-tranferase (p < 0.05). Pretreatment with BHA significantly decreased ALT, AST and LDH levels in a dose-dependent manner (p < 0.05). BHA also increased antioxidant enzymes level and decreased lipid peroxidation and hydrogen peroxide generation to 1.3-1.5-fold as compared to Fe-NTA-treated group. The results show the strong hepatoprotective activity of BHA which could be due to its potent antioxidant effects.
The present study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of diallylsulphide (DAS) against mercuric chloride (HgCl2)-induced oxidative stress in rat livers. Rats were randomly divided into four groups of six rats each and exposed to HgCl2 (50 mg/kg/body weight (b.w.)) intraperitoneally and/or DAS (200 mg/kg/b.w.) by gavage. HgCl2 administration enhanced alanine aminotransferase (AST) and aspartate aminotransferase (ALT) levels (p < 0.05) with reduction in the levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px). However, treatment with DAS markedly attenuated HgCl2-induced biochemical alterations in liver and serum transaminases (AST and ALT; p < 0.05). Further, biochemical results were confirmed by histopathological changes as compared to HgCl2-intoxicated rats. Histopathology of liver also showed that administration of DAS significantly reduced the damage generated by HgCl2 The present study suggests that DAS shows antioxidant activity and plays a protective role against mercury-induced oxidative damage in the rat livers.
The present study was aimed to study protective effect of butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), a phenolic antioxidant used in foods on ferric nitrilotriacetate (Fe-NTA)-induced nephrotoxicity. Male albino rats of Wistar strain (4-6 weeks old) weighing 125-150 g were used in this study. Animals were given a single dose of Fe-NTA (9 mg kg(-1) body weight) after treatment with BHA (1 and 2 mg animal(-1) day(-1)). Fe-NTA treatment enhanced ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) activity to 5.3-fold, and [(3)H]-thymidine incorporation in DNA to 2.5-fold in kidney compared with the corresponding saline-treated control, whereas glutathione (GSH) levels and the activities of antioxidant enzymes decreased to a range of 2- to 2.5-fold in kidney. These changes were reversed significantly in animals receiving a pretreatment of BHA. The enhanced ODC activity and DNA synthesis showed a reduction to 2.12-fold and 1.15-fold, respectively, at a higher dose of 2 mg BHA day(-1) animal(-1), compared with the Fe-NTA-treated groups. Pretreatment with BHA prior to Fe-NTA treatment increased GSH and the activities of antioxidant enzymes to a range of 1.5- to 2-fold in kidney. The results indicate that BHA suppresses Fe-NTA-induced nephrotoxicity in male Wistar rats.
Garlic contains diallylsulfide (DAS) and other structurally related compounds that are widely believed to be active agents in preventing cancer. This study shows the effect of DAS (a phenolic antioxidant used in foods, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical products) on ferric nitrilotriacetate (Fe-NTA)-induced hepatotoxicity in rats. Male albino rats of Wistar strain weighing 125-150 g were given a single dose of Fe-NTA (9 mg kg(-1) body weight, intraperitoneally) after 1 week of treatment with 100 and 200 mg kg(-1) DAS in corn oil respectively administered through the gavage. Fe-NTA administration led to 2.5-fold increase in the values of both alanine transaminase and aspartate aminotransferase, respectively, and 3.2-fold increase in the activity of lactate dehydrogenase, microsomal lipid peroxidation to approximately 2.0-fold compared to saline-treated control. The activities of glutathione (GSH) and other antioxidant enzymes decreased to a range of 2.2-2.5-fold. These changes were reversed significantly (p < 0.001) in animals receiving a pretreatment of DAS. DAS protected against hepatic lipid peroxidation, hydrogen peroxide generation, preserved GSH levels, and GSH metabolizing enzymes to 60-80% as compared to Fe-NTA alone-treated group. Present data suggest that DAS can ameliorate the toxic effects of Fe-NTA and suppress oxidant-induced tissue injury and hepatotoxicity in rats.
Ferric nitrilotriacetate (Fe-NTA) induces tissue necrosis as a result of lipid peroxidation (LPO) and oxidative damage that leads to high incidence of renal carcinomas. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of diallyl sulphide (DAS) against Fe-NTA-induced nephrotoxicity. A total of 30 healthy male rats were randomly divided into 5 groups of 6 rats each: (1) control, (2) DAS (200 mg kg(-1)), (3) Fe-NTA (9 g Fe kg(-1)), (4) DAS (100 mg kg(-1)) + Fe-NTA (9 mg Fe kg(-1)) and (5) DAS (200 mg kg(-1)) + Fe-NTA (9 mg Fe kg(-1)). Fe-NTA + DAS-treated groups were given DAS for a period of 1 week before Fe-NTA administration. The intraperitoneal administration of Fe-NTA enhanced blood urea nitrogen and creatinine levels with reduction in levels of antioxidant enzymes. However, significant restoration of depleted renal glutathione and its dependent enzymes (glutathione reductase and glutathione-S-transferase) was observed in DAS pretreated groups. DAS also attenuated Fe-NTA-induced increase in LPO, hydrogen peroxide generation and protein carbonyl formation (p < 0.05). The results indicate that DAS may be beneficial in ameliorating the Fe-NTA-induced renal oxidative damage in rats.
The depletion of fossil fuel sources and increase in energy demands have increased the need for a sustainable alternative energy source. The ability to produce hydrogen from microalgae is generating a lot of attention in both academia and industry. Due to complex production procedures, the commercial production of microalgal biohydrogen is not yet practical. Developing the most optimum microalgal hydrogen production process is also very laborious and expensive as proven from the experimental measurement. Therefore, this research project intended to analyse the random time series dataset collected during microalgal hydrogen productions while using various low thermally pre-treated palm kernel expeller (PKE) waste via machine learning (ML) approach. The analysis of collected dataset allowed the derivation of an enhanced kinetic model based on the Gompertz model amidst the dark fermentative hydrogen production that integrated thermal pre-treatment duration as a function within the model. The optimum microalgal hydrogen production attained with the enhanced kinetic model was 387.1 mL/g microalgae after 6 days with 1 h thermally pre-treated PKE waste at 90 °C. The enhanced model also had better accuracy (R2 = 0.9556) and net energy ratio (NER) value (0.71) than previous studies. Finally, the NER could be further improved to 0.91 when the microalgal culture was reused, heralding the potential application of ML in optimizing the microalgal hydrogen production process.
Municipal wastewater is ubiquitously laden with myriad pollutants discharged primarily from a combination of domestic and industrial activities. These heterogeneous pollutants are threating the natural environments when the traditional activated sludge system fails sporadically to reduce the pollutants' toxicities. Besides, the activated sludge system is very energy intensive, bringing conundrums for decarbonization. This research endeavoured to employ Chlorella vulgaris sp. In converting pollutants from municipal wastewater into hydrogen via alternate light and dark fermentative process. The microalgae in attached form onto 1 cm3 of polyurethane foam cubes were adopted in optimizing light intensity and photoperiod during the light exposure duration. The highest hydrogen production was recorded at 52 mL amidst the synergistic light intensity and photoperiod of 200 μmolm-2s-1 and 12:12 h (light:dark h), respectively. At this lighting condition, the removals of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and ammoniacal nitrogen were both achieved at about 80%. The sustainability of microalgal fermentative performances was verified in recyclability study using similar immobilization support material. There were negligible diminishments of hydrogen production as well as both COD and ammoniacal nitrogen removals after five cycles, heralding inconsequential microalgal cells' washout from the polyurethane support when replacing the municipal wastewater medium at each cycle. The collected dataset was finally modelled into enhanced Monod equation aided by Python software tool of machine learning. The derived model was capable to predict the performances of microalgae to execute the fermentative process in producing hydrogen while subsisting municipal wastewater at arbitrary photoperiod. The enhanced model had a best fitting of R2 of 0.9857 as validated using an independent dataset. Concisely, the outcomes had contributed towards the advancement of municipal wastewater treatment via microalgal fermentative process in producing green hydrogen as a clean energy source to decarbonize the wastewater treatment facilities.