الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) are used in a wide variety of commercial and medical applications such as animal feed additives, cosmetics, and drug delivery systems. However, their use in the food industry raises growing public concerns about their health risks. Selenium has vital antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and free radical scavenging activities. This study aimed to inspect the protective effects of selenium-loaded chitosan nanoparticles (CS-SeNPs) against the adverse impact of Ag-NPs in the rats’ brain, ovary, and liver tissues. Forty adult female Albino rats were divided equally into four groups: control group I received distilled water (0.5 ml/kg), group II received Ag-NPs (100 mg/kg), group III received Ag-NPs (100 mg/kg), and CS- SeNPs (0.5 mg/kg) and group IV received only CS-SeNPs (0.5 mg/kg) daily by oral gavage for 60 days. Then, rats were subjected to behavioral assessment and then blood samples were collected for estimation of serum liver enzymes. Afterwards, rats were euthanized one day after the last behavioral test. Samples from various brain regions, ovaries, and liver tissues were subjected to histopathological, immunohistochemical, ultrastructural and biochemical analyses. Ag-NPs significantly increased MDA and 8-OHdG and markedly decreased TAC and Nrf2 in brain tissue. Moreover, they significantly elevated the levels of ALT, AST, TNF, and IL-6 in liver and significantly reduced GSH and SOD in ovarian tissue and TAC, and CAT in hepatic tissue. Furthermore, Ag-NPs induced severe histopathological changes including neuropil vacuolations, vascular congestion, and neuronal degeneration in different brain areas. Additionally, degenerated oocytes with atretic deformed follicles in ovarian tissue and degenerated hepatocytes with disorganization of the hepatic plates in liver tissue were also detected. Ag-NPs exposure also resulted in an intense positive GFAP immune reactivity in brain tissue with strong positive caspase-3, and PCNA immunoreactions in both ovary and liver tissues. On the contrary, the administration of CS-SeNPs alleviated the adverse effects induced by Ag-NPs. Therefore, CS-SeNPs can ameliorate most of the adverse effects induced by Ag-NPs. |