Eur J Anat, 17 (2): 115-122 (2013)

Prophylactic and regenerative effects of alcoholic extract of Moringa oleifera on lead-induced lung tissue damage in adult male Wistar rats models

Joshua Owolabi¹, Olaide Ghazal², Micheal Dare², John Olanrewaju², Ademola Caxton-Martins² and Felicia William³

¹Department of Anatomy, Ben Carson Sr. School of Medicine, Babcock University, Nigeria,²Department of Anatomy, College of Health Sciences, University of Ilorin, Nigeria,³Department of Pharmacy, University of Ilorin, Nigeria

ABSTRACT The research work was carried out to investigate and evaluate the prophylactic and regenerative effects of alcoholic extract of Moringa oleifera leaves on lead induced damage to lung tissues of adult Wistar rat models. A total of 30 adult male Wistar rats (n=30) were used for the investigation and were randomly distributed into groups to give relatively equal average group weights. Animals were distributed into five groups of six animals each and labeled Groups A-E. The Group A served as the control group; Group B was administered moringa extract only; Group C was administered lead acetate solution only; Group D was administered lead acetate solution for the first eight days and moringa oleifera for the remaining eight days and the Group E was administered Lead and Moringa oleifera concurrently for the whole 16 days of administration. A relative uniform dosage of 50mg/kg body weight of lead was administered to the rats in the treated groups while 100g/kg body weight of Moringa oleifera extract was administered. The rats were sacrificed, 24 hours after the last administration using the method of cervical dislocation. The lung tissues were excised. Half of the samples from each group were fixed in formol saline and thereafter processed for histological demonstrations using the Haematoxyline and Eosin staining techniques as well as the Feulgen DNA staining techniques. The remaining parts were homogenized for biochemical assays. Results indicated that lead would cause observable tissue damage to lung when administered at the dosage used in this investigation. The damages observed in this study included the disruption of the general histological architecture of the lung, disruption of the alveoli as well as damage to lung tissue cells as well as disruptions in carbohydrate metabolism enzymes levels. Moringa administration at this dosage reduced the severity of lead damaging effects to the lung by producing mild regenerative effect.

Keywords: Moringa oleifera extract, Lead toxicity, Effects, Regenerative, Prophylactic, Wistar rat