Original article                                                                            UDC: 547.72:616.127

                                                                                                    doi:10.5633/amm.2014.0101

 

 

 CHANGES OF MYOCARDIAL GLYCOGEN CONTENT IN RATS ADMINISTERED WITH MODERATE DOSES OF FURFURAL

 

Dragana Veličković¹, Branislava Miličić², Tanja Mladenović³

 

University of Niš, Institute of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Niš, Serbia¹

University of Ljubljana, Institute for Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Ljubljana, Slovenia²

University of Niš, Institute of Pathophysiology, Faculty of Medicine, Niš, Serbia³

 

Furfural is produced by dehydration process when strong acids react with pentoses and formation of furfural occurs. It is used as a solvent for extracting mineral oils in many industrial branches and can also be found in orange juice or in brandy. Furfural is not toxic, but its oxidative by-product, pyromucic acid that is conjugated to glycine in the liver and excreted mostly in urine, has harmful effects.

The experiments were performed on 9-week old Wistar rats with body weight of about 259 gr. The animals were treated with furfuraldehyde C₄C₃OCHO, “Sigma chemical Co”, as 1% solution in drinking water, first at a dose of 20mg/kg body weight for seven days, then the dosage was gradually increased  for 45 days when the animals were sacrificed.

The analysis was performed on the myocardium of experimental animals. The methods of Hematoksilin-oesin staining (HE) and PAS (periodic acid Shiff) staining were used. Toxic changes were detected in myocardiocytes, showing partial loss of striation, sporadic discoloration of the nucleus and cytoplasm coagulation associated with the presence of expressed hyperemia and the massive loss of glycogen in cardiomyocytes as well. Acta Medica Medianae 2014;53(1):5-9.

 

            Key words: furfural, glycogen in cardiomyocytes