Terminalia arjuna bark extract inhibits histological alterations by mitigating oxidative stress in lead intoxicated mice

It is well known that plant products are helpful in ameliorating heavy metal toxicity in experimental animals. Here, we investigated the effect of Terminalia arjuna (TA) bark extract (25 and 75 mg/kg p.o.) on lead acetate (LA; 150 mg/kg; i.p.) induced oxidative stress, hepato and nephrotoxicity in male Swiss albino mice. In the present study, morphological alterations in three organs- liver, kidney and brain have been analyzed by H&E staining. The lipid peroxidation (LPO), reduced glutathione (GSH) and the activities of catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione reductase (GR) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) were also estimated. The functional tests showed a higher grade of liver and renal toxicity in LA-treated mice. We observed an acute LA-induced injury in liver, kidney and brain as indicated by vacuolated tissue architecture with huge loss of cells. Acute lead exposure for 24 h leads to enhanced LPO in liver, kidney and brain with concomitant reduction in GSH content and CAT, SOD, GR and GPx activities. However, treatment of mice with TA bark extract reduced the serum markers of liver and renal toxicity and resulted in protection of histological features and reduced the LPO content and increased the GSH level significantly. The activities of antioxidant enzymes were also restored by the treatment of TA Bark extract. These findings suggest that TA bark extract is able to mitigate adverse effects of lead acetate induced toxicity and can be used as pharmacological intervention against metal toxicity.