Abstract

Acrylamide (ACR) is an industrial chemical which induces neurotoxic effects in experimental animals and humans. The present study was carried out to investigate the hematological, biochemical, neurological and histopathological effects of ACR on immature male and female rats. Animals were divided into 2 main groups; immature male group and immature female group and all rats were treated for 28 consecutive days. Each main group subsequently was divided into 2 subgroups: (I) Untreated control group that received a daily oral administration of distilled water and (II) ACR treated rats which received a daily oral administration of ACR (15 mg/kg/body weight). The results obtained indicate that ACR administration induced some behavioral disorders in the movement of immature male and female rats as well as loss of body weight. ACR induced a significant decrease in hemoglobin (Hb), erythrocytes (RBC_S), hematocrit (HCT) and lymphocyte levels of young female rats. ACR significantly increased serum glucose, total cholesterol and triglycerides concentrations of both immature male and female rats. While, significant increase in the total urea concentration was noticed only in the immature male rats following ACR administration. Moreover, ACR induced marked increase in the activities of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) in the immature male and female rats. On the other hand, the activities of serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) were significantly decreased in both treated groups. ACR caused a significant increase in norepinephrin (NE), glutamate, aspartate and taurine, while it reduced dopamine (DA) and serotonin (5-HT) levels. In conclusion, the present study showed that, ACR induced hazardous effects on immature male and female rats. So, we recommended that children must avoid fast or junk foods.

Key words: Acrylamide, hematological, biochemical, neurological. histopathological, immature.