Activation of pro-apoptotic cells, reactive astrogliosis and hyperphosphorylation of tau protein in trimethyltin-induced hippocampal injury in rats

Abstract

Neurodegenerative diseases cause neural cells to lose both the functional and sensory abilities as a result of genetic factors, proteopathies and mitochondrial dysfunction. Neurodegeneration forms the basis of most neurodegenerative disorders for example Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s diseases, and Parkinson’s diseases. The mechanism that underlines the process of neurodegeneration is not well understood. Understanding the process and mechanism involved in neurodegeneration might offer a better therapeutic approach to positively manage cases of neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, this study’s target was to create an animal model to study neurodegeneration. Sixteen adult male Wistar rats were used in the study and divided into two groups. Control (0.2 mL of normal saline (NS)), and trimethyltin-treated (TMT, 8 mg/kg stat dose only). These animals underwent perfusion with 4% paraformaldehyde, brain excision and analysis of p53 antigen, GFAP and Bielshowsky on these tissues. The results showed that animals in the control group showed presence of activated p53 antigen, reactive astrogliosis, neurofibrillary tangles, and amyloid plaques within the cytoplasm of the hippocampal cells. Cornus Ammonis (CA2) and (CA3) showed more of the trimethylrtin injury than CA1 and CA4. This study thus revealed that, intra-peritoneal administration of single dose of 8mg/kg of trimethyltin can offer an attractive disease model to study some neurodegenerative diseases.

Keywords: p53 antigen, Bielshowsky, Glia fibrillary acidic protein, Trimethyltin, Hippocampus,