Infrared spectroscopy and biochemical parameters of rat tissues under heavy metal poisoning conditions

Abstract

The increasing level of anthropogenic environmental pollution and effective means to reduce the negative impact of xenobiotics on animal and human health is an urgent problem today. Considering this, the purpose of the study is to examine the effect of heavy metals on accumulation processes under poisoning conditions, and biochemical parameters in the body of rats. Analogue groups were formed of rats of the same age, gender, and body weight to conduct the study. Rats were poisoned with solutions of copper sulfate, zinc sulfate, cadmium sulfate, and lead nitrate for 14 days. Using the method of infrared spectroscopy, substantial differences in the spatial structure of protein components in intact and poisoned animals were established. The difference between the spectral characteristics of the examined tissues is clearly demonstrated by the statistical indicators of skewness and kurtosis. It was determined that poisoning of rats with copper, zinc, cadmium, and lead ions affects the course of glycolysis reactions and the tricarboxylic acid cycle, which leads to a likely increase in serum concentrations of lactate and pyruvate, oxaloacetate and α-ketoglutarate and a decrease in Malate content compared to intact rats. It was established that under the conditions of poisoning, there is also a substantial increase (P < 0.05) in the content of the examined heavy metals in the blood, liver, and kidneys. In animals poisoned with heavy metals, a decrease in the pool of free amino acids in the kidneys is observed. In particular, the content of aspartic acid, valine, glycine, tyrosine, and cystine (more than 1.5 times) in the kidneys of such rats decreases; alanine, leucine, serine, taurine, threonine, phenylalanine (more than 2.0 times), lysine – 3.4-4.9 times. Therewith, an increase in the level of isoleucine and methionine by 1.3-1.5 times, ornithine – by 1.8-2.1 times, and glutamic acid – by 4.4-5.3 times in rats of the experimental group compared to intact ones was identified. The results of the study can be helpful in the professional activities of doctors of veterinary medicine, toxicologists, biologists, and environmentalists and used to control the quality of livestock products, conduct toxicological studies, and analyse environmental objects