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Acta Medica Medianae
Vol. 46, No 3, Oktobar, 2005
UDK 61
YU ISSN 0365-4478

 

 

 


Contakt:

Snezana Cekic
Institute of Physiology, Medical faculty
81 dr Zoran Djindjic Street
18000 Nis, Serbia and Montenegro

HistopatHologiC CHanges at tHe HypotHalamiC, adrenal and tHymiC NUCLEUS ARCUATUS in rats treated witH monosodiUm glUtamate
 

Snezana Cekic1, Milos Filipovic2, Voja Pavlovic1, Milan Ciric1, Milkica Nesic1, Zorica Jovic3 and Suzana Brankovic1

 

Institute of Physiology, Nis1
Center for Pulmonary Diseases, Nis2
Institute of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Nis3

 

The aim of this paper was to investigate the impact of neurotoxic monosodium glutamate (MSG) on a rat’s hypothalamus, adrenal gland and thymus nucleus arcuatus (ARCN). In newborn animals subcutaneous MSG injections induce lesions at the hypothalamic nucleus arcuatus level and induce hypothalamic-hypophyseal-adrenal-thymic axis disorders. Experimental and control group of animals included 10 Wistar rats each. Experimental group animals were treated with monosodium glutamate (4 mg MSG/g BW) on the 2nd ,4th ,6th ,8th and 10th day of their postnatal life. Five animals from experimental and control group were sacrificed 7 days after MSG treatment for the purpose of studying histopathological changes on the thymus. The remaining animals were sacrificed 6 months after MSG treatment in order to study histopathological changes in ARCN level and adrenal gland. Paraffin sections of the hypothalamic tissue, adrenal gland and thymus were hematoxylin-eosin (HE) stained. Macroscopically, the treated animals demonstrate skeletal development arrest and cushingoid type of obesity («buffalo type»). Histopathological analysis of nucleus arcuatus in experimental animals demonstrates significantly reduced number of neurons. Other cells express degenerative changes in the form of pyknotic nuclei. Adrenal glands in experimental rats demonstrate cortex hyperplasia, with clearly enlarged reticular and fasciculate areas and signs of hemorrhagic necrosis in the medulla. At thymus level, depletion of thymocytes in the cortex is observed with hemorrhage in the medulla, coupled with degeneration of tissues cytoarchitecture . These findings suggest the impaired hypothalamic-hypophyseal adrenal-thymic (HPTT) axis function in newborn rats treated with MSG. Acta Medica Medianae 2005; 44 (3):
35 – 42.


Key words: monosodium glutamate, nucleus arcuatus, adrenal glands, thymus