Morphological Effects of Long-Term Consumption of Energy Drinks on the Intracranial Auditory Relay Centres of Adult Wistar Rats

Morphological effects of long-term consumption of energy drinks commonly use as flavored beverage drinks on the intracranial auditory relay centres namely inferior colliculus and medial geniculate body of adult wistar rats were carefully studied. The rats of both sexes (N = 20), with average weight of 200g were randomly assigned into treated (n =10) and control (n =10) groups. The rats in the treated group received energy drinks on a daily basis for 10hrs and 14hrs of distilled water liberally in thirty days, while the control group received distilled water daily for thirty days. The growers mash feeds was obtained from Edo Feeds and Flour Mill Limited, Ewu, Edo state, Nigeria and the rats were given feeds liberally. The rats were sacrificed by cervical dislocation on the thirty-first day of the experiment; the inferior colliculus and medial geniculate body were carefully dissected out, weighed and quickly fixed in 10% formal saline for further histological study. The findings indicated that there was an increase in the weight (g) and relative weight (%) of the inferior colliculus and a significant (p < 0.05) decrease in the weight (g) and relative weight (%) of the medial geniculate body of the treated rats as compared to the control group. The section from the treated group with energy drinks showed cellular degenerative changes, sparse cellular population, hypertrophy, microcytic changes and vacuolations in the stroma of the inferior colliculus and medial geniculate body as compared to the control group. Long-term consumption of energy drinks may therefore have an adverse effect on the intracranial auditory sensibilities by affecting the morphology of the inferior colliculus and medial geniculate body of adult wistar rats. It is recommended that further studies aimed at corroborating these findings be carried out.

Key Words: Morphology effects, Energy drinks, Inferior colliculus, Medial geniculate body, Wistar rats