Imidacloprid Induced Oxidative Stress and Histopathological Alterations in Rat Liver and their Amelioration by Resveratrol

The aim of present study was to investigate the effects of toxicity of imidacloprid and its amelioration by resveratrol in male Wistar rats. The MTD of imidacloprid was 1850 mg/kg b.wt. orally in male rats. Wistar rats were randomly allocated into six groups (n = 6). Group 1 was naïve. The treatment groups were as: group 2 - resveratrol (2 mg/kg b.wt.), group 3 - imidacloprid (MTD/10), group 4 - imidacloprid (MTD/20) and in group 5 and 6, resveratrol co-treatment (2 mg/kg b.wt.) was given in the animals treated with imidacloprid (MTD/10) and imidacloprid (MTD/20), respectively. Imidacloprid and resveratrol were administered orally by gavage once daily for 14 days to 6 rats and for 28 days to remaining 12 rats. The results were analyzed by using ANOVA followed by Tukey’s multiple comparison post-hoc test. Imidacloprid exposure produced significant changes in oxidative stress markers viz. Malonaldiadehyde (MDA), myeloperoxidase (MPO), protein carbonyl, catalase which were restored towards normalcy by resveratrol co-treatment. Hepatic biomarker enzymes viz. ALT, AST and GGT were significantly increased by imidacloprid treatment, which were decreased by resveratrol co-treatment. Histopathological findings revealed that imidacloprid treatment resulted in degenerative changes in liver tissue of male rats which were attenuated by resveratrol co-treatment. These study revealed that imidacloprid possesses mild to moderate hepatotoxic potential in male Wistar rats. Resveratrol possesses potential to ameliorate the toxicity produced by imidacloprid.