The Effect of Lycopene on Cerebellum Histomorphometric Alteration of Rat Pups Born to Alcohol Consuming Mother Rats
Zabihollah Khaksar* and Hossein Kargar JahromiDepartment of Basic sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, ShirazUniversity, Shiraz, Iran
Abstract: Consumption of alcohol during pregnancy causes a wide range of neurophysiological, morphological, and neuropsychological disorders on the central nervous system, especially on the cerebellum of children. Lycopene pigment has neuroprotective effects and antioxidant properties. According to importance of lycopene, this study is aimed to investigate the effect of this pigment on cerebellum histomorphometric alteration of rat pups born to alcohol consuming mother rats. This experimental study was performed on the total number of 32 adult female Wistar rats. According to the purpose of the research the rats were divided into 4 groups of control, lycopene, alcohol, and lycopene and alcohol groups. Each group got pregnant naturally and followed by parturition, the samples were taken from cerebellum of 15- and 30-day-old rat pups after the birth. Various parameters such as thickness of gray/white matter and the number of available cells in the gray and white matters were studied after preparing tissue slides and using Olympus BX51 microscope and Olysia software. The thickness of gray and white matters and the number of available cells of both zones per unit area, in rat pups which their mother just received alcohol (alcohol group) significantly decreased compared with the control group (p>0.05). Compared with alcohol group, the process of decreased thickness of gray and white matter and the number of available cells of both zones per unit area in the group of rat pups which their mother received lycopene and alcohol (lycopene and alcohol group) is less than the control group. Lycopene is able to improve damaging effects of ethanol on the number of cells and thickness of white and gray matter in the cerebellum of rat pups born to alcohol consuming mother rats.
Keywords: Alcohol; Lycopene; Cerebellum; Rat Back to TOC