Research Article Histological, Histochemical
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Egypt. J. Exp. Biol. (Zool.), 8(2): 273 – 285 (2012) © The Egyptian Society of Experimental Biology RESEARCH ARTICLE Nabila I. El-Desouki* Amal I. El-Refaiy** Dalia F. A. Abou-Zaid* Amira A. Abdel - Kader* HISTOLOGICAL, HISTOCHEMICAL, AND IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL STUDIES OF THE CARDIAC MUSCLE OF THE ALBINO RAT UNDER IMMOBILIZATION STRESS AND THE CURATIVE ROLE OF DIAZEPAM ABSTRACT: The present study is planned to study the effect CORRESPONDENCE: of immobilization stress on the cardiac muscle Nabila Ibrahim El-Desouki of adult male albino rats and the curative role of Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, diazepam. The study was carried out on 80 Tanta University, Egypt. albino rats; the animals were divided into eight groups: group 1 served as control rats; group 2 E-mail: [email protected] unstressed rats injected intraperitoneally daily with 0.1 mg/kg b.w. diazepam for 30 days; groups 3, 4, and 5 served as immobilized Amal I. El-Refaiy** stressed-rats for 30 days (by restricting Dalia F. A. Abou-Zaid* movement for 2 hr daily at different durations Amira A. Abdel - Kader* 5, 15, and 30 days, respectively); groups 6, 7, and 8 stressed rats treated daily with 0.1 mg/kg *Dept. of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Tanta b.w. diazepam for 30 days. The histological University study of the cardiac myofibres of the stressed- **Dept. of Biological & Environmental rats revealed disorganization of the muscle Science, Faculty of Home Economic, Al-Azhar fibres, vacuolation of the sarcoplasm, pyknosis Univ. of the nuclei, congestion and dilatation of blood vessels in endomysium. The thickness of collagen fibres gradually increased and became ARTICLE CODE: 35.01.12 compact dense in the stressed rats till 30 days, and they were more obvious around the blood vessels. The histochemical study demonstrated INTRODUCTION: a marked reduction in the glycogen and protein Stress is an aversive stimulus, which contents of the cardiac muscle, and was time- perturbs the physiological homeostasis, and dependent. The immunohistochemical study its impact is reflected on a variety of revealed that the rats stressed for different biological systems. According to the tasks in durations manifested the disappearance of the the life, people can see the degree of stress, cytoskeletal desmin protein filaments at more tasks-more stress. Stress responses intercalated discs and Z-lines of the cardiac can be categorized as specific or nonspecific. myofibres. Treatment with diazepam for 30 Specific stressors are typically short-term days to stressed rats demonstrated markedly such as a sudden increase in environmental improvements of the architecture of cardiac temperature. Animals typically react to myofibres and restoration of the two main specific stressors by trying to combat the chemical components; glycogen and protein stressor. However, in Long-term or contents. Also, restoration of desmin in the nonspecific stress, animals take measures to cardiac myofibres was elucidated. The results adapt to the stressor rather than dealing with indicated that diazepam is recommended to be it directly (Pacak and Palkovits, 2001). used as a curative drug to improve the It has been postulated that stress is disturbances in the cardiomyocytes and involved in pathogenesis of variety of myofibrils assembly caused under the effect of diseases like depression and anxiety. stress. Immobilization (restraint) stress has been commonly used as acute and chronic stress KEY WORDS: inducers in rats (Bharihoke et al., 2000; Iwa Cardiac muscle, Desmin, Diazepam, Histochemistry, et al., 2006; Kulkarni and Juvekar, 2008). Histology, Immunohistochemistry, Rat, Stress Exposure of striated muscle tissue to intensive and prolonged compression may ISSN: 2090 - 0511 On Line ISSN: 2090 - 0503 http://www.egyseb.org 274 Egypt. J. Exp. Biol. (Zool.), 8(2): 273 – 285 (2012) pathologically alter its microstructure and hypnotic and anticonvulsant drugs. BDZs lead to loss of muscle fibres cross-striation reduce stress responses by acting on high- and infiltration of inflammatory cell (Bosboom affinity receptor sites present in the central et al., 2001;Appell et al., 2004), and also nervous system; these specific binding sites effected on immune system (Brehe and Way, on gama-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-gated 2008). chloride channels are called GABA-receptor- chloride-complex (Engel et al., 2007). Under immobilization stress, the Nevertheless, besides the central receptors histological changes were elucidated in described for BDZs, peripheral-type binding mammary glands (Soliman, 2006) and sites have also been identified for them in induced ultrastructural changes in the colonic human stomach, small intestine, colon, liver, mucosa (El-Derieny and Mousa, 2006). lung, thyroid gland, pancreas, breast, Moreover, Erosy et al. (2008) documented prostate, ovary and in mitochondrial that the stomach epithelium of Wister albino membranes (Bribes et al., 2004). rat under stress showed ulceration in some areas, dilatation and degeneration in gastric In fact, diazepam treatment has been glandular cells and prominent congestion of found to reverse the effect of different the capillaries. Besides, degenerated stressful stimuli (Lane et al., 1982), to epithelium and severe vascular congestion suppress noise induced gastric hypomotility were observed in the ileum and colon after (Gue et al., 1987), to improve the histological the exposure to acute water-avoidance stress and histochemical alterations of testes of for 2 hr daily and chronic stress for 5 days. immobilized rat (El-Refaiy, 2010), to recover Gabry et al. (2011) also demonstrated many both the histological changes in gastric histopathological changes in the gastric mucosa (Gabry et al., 2011) and the mucosa of rats under immobilization stress ultrastructural alterations induced by stress in for different durations. rat adrenal cortex (El-Desouki et al., 2011). El-Refaiy (2010) documented that the The aim of this work is to study the immobilization stress of rats for 2 hr daily for effect of immobilization stress on the different durations (5, 15 and 30 days) histological, histochemical and on desmin of caused marked reduction of spermatogenesis, the cardiac myocytes of male albino rats and degeneration of germinal epithelium, the curative role of diazepam. thickening of basement membrane, haemorrhage and marked increment of MATERIAL AND METHODS: collagen fibres. Mazroa and Asker (2010) Animals: found ultrastructural changes in zona fasciculate cells of rat adrenal cortex after Eighty adult male albino rats, each exposure to high ambient temperature stress. weighing 100 ± 5 g, were used in the present El-Desouki et al. (2011) elucidated the work. The animals were kept under the same abnormalities in ultrastructure of the three natural environmental condition of adrenal cortical zonal cells of rat under 2 hr temperature and photoperiod with free food of immobilization stress daily for 30 days. and water. All procedures and treatments were in accordance with the protocol of When an animal first encounters a National Animal Care and Use Committee and stressor, the neurogenic system is activated. Guidelines for the care and use of The neurogenic system is composed of the experimental animals. sympathetic postganglionic neurons and adrenal medullary tissue (Joels et al., 2007). Immobilization stress: Activation of the neurogenic system leads to Rats were exposed to stress for 2 hr daily marked increases in blood pressure muscle between 10:00 and 12:00 a.m. The animals tone, nerve sensitivity, blood sugar and were individually placed in wire stainless respiration. This is brought about by secretion mesh restrainers (5×7×12 cm in dimension) of the neurogenic amines, epinephrine and as described by Soliman (2006). This norepinephrine. Also, when the hypothalamic- procedure effectively restricted movement of pituitary-adrenal cortical system is activated the animals. Control group were housed in by stress (Ulrich-Lai et al., 2006), the normal stainless cages (20 × 25 × 35) Cm. hypothalamus produces corticotrophin- Treatment: releasing factor, which in turn stimulates the Stressed rats were daily injected pituitary to release adrenocorticotropic intraperitoneally for 30 days with the hormone (ACTH). In most mammals, therapeutic dose of diazepam which is 0.1 secretion of ACTH under stress causes the mg/kg b.w. according to Paget and Barnes cells of the adrenal cortical tissue to (1964). Diazepam was received from Amoun proliferate and to secrete corticosteroids Pharmaceutical Industries Co. Cairo, Egypt. especially cortisol from zona fasciculata (Armario et al., 2008). Experimental design: Benzodiazepines (BDZs), such as The rats were divided into eight groups, diazepam, are widely used primarily as 10 rats each. Group1: rats received no anxiolytic, muscle relaxant, sedative / treatment and served as control; group 2: ISSN: 2090 - 0511 On Line ISSN: 2090 - 0503 http://www.egyseb.org El-Desouki et al., The Cardiac Muscle of the Albino Rat under Immobilization Stress and the Curative Role of Diazepam 275 unstressed rats injected daily Table 1. Effect of stress on the level of cortisol intraperitoneally with a dose of diazepam 0.1mg/kg b.w. for 30 days; groups 3, 4, and Group Control Stressed rats 5: rats exposed to stress daily for 5, 15, and Stress for Stress for Stress for 30 days, respectively; groups 6, 7, and 8 rats 5 days 15 days 30 days injected daily intraperitoneally with a Cortisol hormone 1.35 1.53 4.5 4.03 diazepam dose of 0.1 mg/kg b.w. for 30 days Ug/dl after 5,