Potential ameliorative role of honey supplementation against the adverse effects of exposure to gasoline on red cell indices and bone marrow megakaryocytes in Sprague-Dawley male rats

37th Congress of IUPS (Birmingham, UK) (2013) Proc 37th IUPS, PCA104

Poster Communications: Potential ameliorative role of honey supplementation against the adverse effects of exposure to gasoline on red cell indices and bone marrow megakaryocytes in Sprague-Dawley male rats

M. B. Abubakar1,2, W. Z. Abdullah3, S. A. Sulaiman4, A. B. Suen2

1. Physiology, Usmanu Dan Fodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria. 2. Physiology, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia. 3. Haematology, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia. 4. Pharmacology, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia.

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Gasoline (petrol) is primarily used as fuel for internal combustion engines. Different health risks including haematotoxicity and oxidative stress have been reported for gasoline [1, 2]. Although Malaysia has in the recent years adopted the European fuel quality standards in order to help improve the air quality in the environment, gasoline with Research Octane number 95 (believed to contain benzene and other toxic substances) is still widely in use [3]. Supplementation with antioxidants such as vitamins A, C, and E has been shown to ameliorate the toxicity effects of gasoline vapours exposure [4]. Honey contains vitamins, and polyphenols that possess good antioxidant properties [5].The potential role of honey in preventing gasoline-induced adverse effect on red cell indices and bone marrow megakaryocytes was investigated. Thirty two male rats weighing 170-230g were randomly assigned in to 4 groups (n=8) namely, control (C; given 0.5ml distilled water + exposure to ambient air daily); gasoline exposed (G; exposed to gasoline vapours 11.13±1.1cm3/h, 6h daily, 6 days/week + 0.5ml water daily); honey treated (H; given honey 1.2g/kg body weight daily) and gasoline exposed + honey treated (GH; exposed to gasoline vapours as above and concurrently treated with honey 1.2g/kg body weight daily) At the end of 11 weeks, rats were sedated with itraperitoneal pentobarbitone (100mg/kg body weight) and blood samples for full blood count (FBC) and differential count (DC) were collected by cardiac puncture. Rats were sacrificed (over dosage of pentobarbital) and bone marrow was collected for smear which was stained and examined under the light microscope. Both normal and abnormal megakaryocytes (with disintegrated and/or detached nuclei) were counted and the percentage of abnormal ones was determined for each rat. Data were analyzed using Kruskal-Walis test followed by Mann-Whitney U test. Results are expressed as median (interquartile range). The mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC) was found to be significantly (p<0.05) reduced in G [31.0 (2.0)] compared with C [(33.5 (3.0)] and H [33.0 (4.0)], it was however not significantly different compared with GH [32.0 (0)]. The percentage of abnormal megakaryocytes was significantly (p<0.05) higher in G [18.1 (15.9)] compared with C [2.7 (4.4)], H [4.5 (4.0)] and GH [4 (3.7)]. This suggests that gasoline vapours inhalation was associated with adverse alterations in MCHC and bone marrow megakaryocytes of rats and administration of honey has the potential to improve such changes in rat model.



Where applicable, experiments conform with Society ethical requirements.

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