Spirulina platensis Alleviates Arsenic-Induced Toxicity in Male Rats: Biochemical, Histopathological and Immunohistochemical Studies

This study was conducted to investigate the protective impact of Spirulina platensis (Sp) in sodium arsenate (As) induced toxicity in male rats. Twenty male Wistar albino rats were used and divided into four equal groups, 5 rats in each group, control negative group and three treatment groups that daily received Sp (300 mg/ kg body weight(bwt), As(5 mg/kg bwt), and Sp +As (300 mg/ kg bwt (Sp) + 5 mg/kg bwt (As)) respectively, for 2 months by oral gavages. Results showed that the body weight was significantly reduced in As-treated group compared to the control, while the co-treatment with Sp significantly recovered the body weight. Arsenic caused a significant reduction in the level of testosterone. Moreover, biochemical analysis revealed that arsenic significantly increased serum malondialdehyde (MDA), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) as well as creatinine and significantly reduced serum glutathione (GSH) level. Sp co-treatment significantly recovered the serum testosterone and GSH levels and significantly reduced MDA, AST, ALT and creatinine. Histologically, testes, liver and kidneys of arsenic-treated group showed different histopathological alterations associated with strong positive caspase-3 immune reaction. Spirulina co-treatment alleviated the histopathological changes with weak expression of caspase-3 protein. We could conclude that Spirulina platensis successfully mitigated the abovementioned parameters induced by arsenic toxicity in different organs of male rats.