Department of Medical Biochemistry, Dr. ALM Post Graduate Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Madras, Taramani Campus, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
Biol Trace Elem Res. 2013 Oct;155(1):56-64. doi: 10.1007/s12011-013-9756-y. Epub 2013 Jul 20.
Methylmercury (MeHg) is a well-recognized environmental contaminant with established health risk to human beings by fish and marine mammal consumption. Bacopa monniera (BM) is a perennial herb and is used as a nerve tonic in Ayurveda, a traditional medicine system in India. This study was aimed to evaluate the effect of B. monniera extract (BME) on MeHg-induced toxicity in rat cerebellum. Male Wistar rats were administered with MeHg orally at a dose of 5 mg/kg b.w. for 21 days. Experimental rats were given MeHg and also administered with BME (40 mg/kg, orally) 1 h prior to the administration of MeHg for 21 days. After treatment period, MeHg exposure significantly decreases the body weight and also caused the following behavioral changes. Decrease tail flick response, longer immobility time, significant decrease in motor activity, and spatial short-term memory. BME pretreatment reverted the behavioral changes to normal. MeHg exposure decreases the DNA and RNA content in cerebellum and also caused some pathological changes in cerebellum. Pretreatment with BME restored all the changes to near normal. These findings suggest that BME has a potent efficacy to alleviate MeHg-induced toxicity in rat cerebellum.
甲基汞（MeHg）是一种公认的环境污染物，通过鱼类和海洋哺乳动物的摄入对人类健康构成了既定的风险。印度传统医学体系阿育吠陀中使用的益智是一种多年生草本植物，被用作神经滋补品。本研究旨在评估益智提取物（BME）对大鼠小脑中海马诱导毒性的影响。雄性 Wistar 大鼠口服给予 MeHg，剂量为 5mg/kg bw，连续 21 天。实验组大鼠给予 MeHg，并在给予 MeHg 前 1 小时给予 BME（40mg/kg，口服），连续 21 天。治疗期结束后，MeHg 暴露显著降低体重，并导致以下行为变化。尾巴敲击反应减少，不动时间延长，运动活性显著降低，空间短期记忆受损。BME 预处理使行为变化恢复正常。MeHg 暴露降低小脑中的 DNA 和 RNA 含量，并导致小脑的一些病理变化。BME 的预处理将所有变化恢复到接近正常。这些发现表明，BME 具有缓解 MeHg 诱导的大鼠小脑毒性的有效作用。
