Comparable preventive effects of laboratory-grown spirulina and market spirulina against arsenic-induced alterations in the liver of adult rats

Arsenic (As) is a naturally occurring ubiquitous environmental toxicant. It has been reported that spirulina has protective effects against As toxicity. In the present study, we compared the prophylactic effects of spirulina [laboratory grown agro-based spirulina (Ab-Sp) and market spirulina (M-Sp)] against the histopathological changes in liver induced by inorganic arsenic (iAs) in male rats. Three doses (1.0g, 1.5g and 2.0g/kg feed) of both the Ab-Sp and M-Sp with feed and 3.0mg NaAsO2/kg body weight (BW) in drinking water were given simultaneously to six groups (T4, T5, T6, T7, T8 and T9) of rats daily for 90 days. Same dose of NaAsO2 (3.0mg/kg; T1) and highest dose (2.0g/kg) of each of Ab-Sp (T2) and M-Sp (T3) were given individually to other 3 groups keeping the rest one as control (T0) with normal feed and water. As feeding resulted in a variety of histopathological changes in liver, including congestion in the central veins, hemorrhage in the hepatic lobules and lobular tissues, higher numbers of hypertrophic hepatocytes with hypertrophic nucleus, hepatocytes with visible chromatin in the nucleus and vacuolated hepatocytes. The Ab-Sp treatment successfully improved all the histopathological conditions. In contrast, the M-Sp improved the conditions by combating all the histopathological conditions including vacuolated hepatocytes, erosions and hemorrhages in the liver. Taken together, the spirulina was found as an effective agent in prevention of the histopathological changes while we first clarified that Ab-Sp had better result than the M-Sp and finally, 2.0g Ab-Sp/kg feed was found as the best dose.