EFFECT OF TRANSPLACENTAL-FETAL BARRIER AND LACTATIONAL TRANSFER OF LEAD ON PROLACTIN GENE EXPRESSION, DNA FRAGMENTATION AND CHANGES IN THE BRAIN OF EXPOSED MOTHERS AND THEIR OFFSPRING IN ALBINO RATS

摘要: The present study was conducted to report the effect of prenatal and postnatal treatment of lead (Pb) on some antioxidant defense system in cerebrum and cerebellum of dams and of their foeti, histopathological lesions and DNA fragmentation in brain of intoxicated dams. Experiments were carried out on pregnant Wister rats, they were divided into four groups as follows, Group I (pregnant group, n=10) received lead acetate in their drinking water with concentration of 0.1mg / ml from the 0 day of pregnancy till parturition, Group II (pregnant and lactating group, n=10) were treated as that of group I, but lead exposure extended to the lactation period (21 days after parturition). The suckling pups were allowed to suckle their mothers during the exposure period. Group III (lactating group, n=10) were allowed to deliver without any treatment then they were exposed to lead acetate in their drinking water in the same concentration during the lactation period and their pups suckled them till weanling (21 days), Group IV (control group, n=30) were left without any treatment from the 0 day of pregnancy till the end of lactation (21 days). At the end of each exposure period, dams as well as their pups were weighted and sacrificed by decapitation. The brains were obtained and weighed and dissected into two regions, cerebrum and cerebellum. In pups tissue of three littermates was pooled, weighed and homogenized. The obtained results showed that there was a significant(p < 0.05) decrease in the activity of superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione in both cerebrum and cerebellum of lead treated rats at the three experimental periods.In addition, a …