Morphological effects of long-term consumption of energy drinks on the intracranial visual relay centres of adult wistar rats.

Abstract

Morphological effects of long-term consumption of energy drinks on the intracranial visual relay centres namely superior colliculus and lateral geniculate body of adult wistar rats were carefully studied. The study included rats of both sexes (N = 20), with average weight of 200g randomly assigned into treated (n1=10) and control (n2=10) groups. The rats in the treated group received energy drinks and distilled water alternatively on a daily basis for 10hrs and 14hrs liberally in thirty days, while the control group received distilled water liberally for the thirty days. The rats were sacrificed by cervical dislocation on the thirty-first day of the experiment and the superior colliculus and lateral geniculate body were carefully dissected out, weighed using the Mettler Toledo weighing balance, and quickly fixed in 10% formal saline for further histological study. The findings indicated that there was a significant (p < 0.05) increase in the weight (g) and relative weight (%) of the treated superior colliculus and a significant (p < 0.05) decrease in the weight (g) and relative weight (%) of the treated lateral geniculate body as compared to their corresponding control group. The microanatomy of the superior colliculus and lateral geniculate body of the rats treated with energy drinks revealed cellular degenerative changes, sparse cellular population, hypertrophy, pyknotic nuclei with microcystic changes and vacuolation in the stroma of the superior colliculus and lateral geniculate body as compared to the control group. It was therefore concluded that long-term consumption of energy drinks might have an adverse effect on the intra cranial visual sensibilities by affecting the microanatomy of the superior colliculus and lateral geniculate body of adult wistar rats. We therefore recommended that further studies aiming at corroborating these findings be done.

Key words: Morphological effects, Energy drink, Superior colliculus, Lateral geniculate body, Wistar rats.