Protective Effects of Nano-Curcumin Against Cadmium Chloride-Induced Liver and Kidney Damage in Male Rats: Role of Oxidative Stress, Inflammation, and Reproductive Hormones

Abstract

Background: Cadmium (Cd) is a heavy metal that is toxic and accumulates mainly in the liver and kidney, resulting in plants being severely damaged due to oxidative stress, inflammation and hormonal imbalance. Cadmium toxicity, though efforts are being put to control human exposures, is one of the biggest health problems in majority of the regions in the world like Iraq. Purpose: The aim of the study was to evaluate the ability of nano-curcumin (NC) to prevent the liver and kidney damages caused by cadmium chloride (CdCl 2 ) in male Wistar rats with a focus on the oxidative stresses, inflammatory cytokines and hormones. Procedures: The forty adult males (n = 40) were divided into four equal groups (n = 10) to take the number of Wistar rats. Normal saline was used to spray group I (control). Eight weeks later group II was administered CdCl 2 (5 mg/kg body weight, orally, daily). The group III was administered with nano-curcumin (orally, 50mg/kg body weight, every day) within a period of eight weeks. Group IV- an intervention that was done on them to have CdCl 2 and nano-curcumin simultaneous in the same doses over eight weeks. At the conclusion of the experiment, blood and tissue samples were analyzed and examined using the markers of liver (ALT, AST, ALP, total bilirubin, total protein, albumin), kidney (creatinine, urea, BUN, uric acid, total cholesterol, triglycerides) functioning and oxidative stress (MDA, SOD, CAT, GPx, GSH, TAC. Results: The liver enzymes, kidney functioning markers, MDA, inflammatory cytokines and cortisol levels significantly increased in Group II and significantly decreased when compared to control group (p < 0.05). All these parameters were also significantly (p < 0.05) increased by Group IV treated with the co-treatment with nano-curcumin compared to Group II however not returning to the normal values. Conclusion: Nano-curcumin was discovered to possess immense protective effects against cadmium-induced liver and kidney damage in male rats because it was able to alleviate oxidative stress, decrease the levels of inflammatory cytokines and help in normalization of hormone levels. These results suggest that nano-curcumin can be a natural compound potentially exhibiting good outcomes in alleviating the negative effects of heavy metal toxicity.