“Cisplatin-Induced Behavioural and Micro-Anatomical Alterations in Rat Brain Were Ameliorated by Seed Extract of Raffia hookeri”

Cisplatin (CP) is used in the management of tumours but has side effects mediated in part by oxidative damage which limits its use. The seed extract of Raffia hookeri (SERH) with known antioxidant property was investigated to determine its capability to ameliorate perturbations in rat brain exposed to CP. Forty-eight female rats (151 – 210 g) were randomly divided into four equal groups (n = 12) viz: Group 1 (control, distilled water), Group 2 (100 mg/kg of SERH), Group 3 (CP, 7.5 mg/kg i.p, as single dose) and Group 4 (100 mg/kg of SERH + CP). The administration of SERH was orally via gavage for 14 days while CP was administered on the eighth day of experiment as a single dose. Forelimb grip strength and open field tests were carried out on day 15 of the experiment after which rats were euthanized followed by tissue processing for histology. Cisplatin reduced the total body weight, forelimb grip strength, transitions, rearings and groomings significantly (p<0.05) when compared with the control. Cisplatin similarly induced histological alterations of cerebral cortex neurons (CCN), granule cells (GC) and pyramidal neurons of cornu ammonis3 (PN). Quantitatively, CP significantly increased the pyknotic indices of CCN, GC and PN while it reduced the width of cerebral pyramidal neurons. These CP-induced alterations were ameliorated in the CP+SERH treatment group when compared with CP group. The SERH demonstrated neuroprotection against CPinduced behavioural and microanatomical alterations of cerebral and hippocampal neurons.

Key Words: Histology, Raffia hookeri, rat, cerebral cortex, dentate gyrus, cornu ammonis