Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2021, Vol. 52 ›› Issue (10): 2953-2959.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2021.010.026

• CLINICAL VETERINARY MEDICINE • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Protective Effect of Melatonin on Toxic Damage Caused by Cadmium in Cerebral Cortex of Duck

ZHANG Wenhua1,2, WEN Shuangquan1,2, WANG Li1,2, XU Mingchang1,2, MA Yonggang1,2, ZOU Hui1,2, GU Jianhong1,2, LIU Xuezhong1,2, BIAN Jianchun1,2, LIU Zongping1,2, YUAN Yan1,2*   

  1. 1. College of Veterinary Medicine, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China;
    2. Jiangsu Co-innovation Center for Prevention and Control of Important Animal Infectious Diseases and Zoonoses, Yangzhou 225009, China
  • Received:2021-03-26 Online:2021-10-23 Published:2021-10-27

Abstract: In order to investigate the protective effect of melatonin on toxic damage caused by cadmium in cerebral cortex of duck, sixteen GaoYou ducks were randomly allocated into 4 groups:control group, melatonin-treated group, cadmium-treated group, cadmium and melatonin co-treated group. The ducks in the control group were free to eat and drink. The ducks in the melatonin group received drinking water containing 0.2 mg·L-1 melatonin. The ducks in the cadmium group received feeding mixed with 2 mg·kg-1 cadmium chloride. The ducks in the cadmium and melatonin co-treated group received drinking water containing 0.2 mg·L-1 melatonin plus feeding mixed with 2 mg·kg-1 cadmium chloride. After 60 d, the cerebral cortices of ducks were dissected and collected. The levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) in cerebral cortex of duck were measured by colorimetry, the contents of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) were detected by ELISA, the nuclear translocation of Nrf2 was observed by immunohistochemical staining, the protein expression of Nrf2 and HO-1 was detected by Western blot. The results showed that compared with the control group, the Nrf2 nuclear translocation was obvious, the level of T-AOC showed extremely significant decrease (P<0.01), the contents of MDA, TNF-α, IL-1β, the protein expression of Nrf2 and HO-1 showed extremely significant increase (P<0.01) in the cerebral cortex of duck in cadmium-treated group. Compared with the cadmium-treated group, the Nrf2 nuclear translocation was decreased, the level of T-AOC showed significant increase (P<0.05), the contents of MDA, TNF-α, and IL-1β, the protein expression of Nrf2 and HO-1 showed significant or extremely significant decrease (P<0.05 or P<0.01) in the cerebral cortex of duck in cadmium and melatonin co-treated group. The results indicate that melatonin has a protective effect on toxic damage caused by cadmium in cerebral cortex of duck.

Key words: melatonin, cadmium, duck, cerebral cortex, toxic damage

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