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DOI 10.1007/s00580-010-0964-y
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Received: 14 September 2009 / Accepted: 7 January 2010 / Published online: 9 February 2010
# Springer-Verlag London Limited 2010
Introduction
Lead, one of the oldest known metals, is also one of the
most common environmental and industrial pollutants that
has been found in almost all biological systems. Lead is a
highly toxic agent and has been shown to produce a wide
M. R. Aslani (*) : V. Najarnezhad : M. Mohri : M. Azad
Department of Clinical Sciences and Center of Excellence
Research in Ruminant Abortion and Neonatal Mortality,
School of Veterinary Medicine, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad,
P.O. Box 91775-1793, Mashhad, Iran
e-mail: mraslani@ferdowsi.um.ac.ir
122
Yassin 2005; Massadeh et al. 2007). Allicin (diallylthiosulfinate) is the most abundant thiosulfinate in garlic, which
is generated when the enzyme alliinase reacts with its
substrate alliin (Miron et al. 2004). Allicin has a variety of
biological effects including antimicrobial, hypolipidemic,
antithrombotic, anticancer, and antioxidant activities
(Chung 2006; Coppi et al. 2006).
In this study, the effects of different doses of allicin on
blood lead level and lead content of different tissues were
evaluated in mice at the time of lead exposure.
Results
The blood and tissue lead concentrations of exposed mice and
the effect of different doses of allicin on tissues are presented
in Table 1. Among tissues, the bone showed the highest
concentration of lead followed by kidney, liver, and brain.
Administration of different doses of allicin reduced blood and
tissue lead content. The effect of allicin on blood and tissue
lead content appeared to be in a dose-dependent manner. The
highest dose of allicin (48 g/kg) led to a greatest reduction
of tissue lead content. From the magnitude of the lead levels
following allicin treatment, the greatest decrease in lead
concentrations was in liver, kidney, brain, and bone,
respectively. The least amount of lead reduction was found
in blood. Reduction of lead concentrations in liver, brain,
kidney, and bone in mice treated with 48 g/kg of allicin was
73.7%, 45%, 45%, and 44.4%, respectively. Zinc concentration of liver was significantly reduced in a dose-dependent
manner by different doses of allicin (Table 2).
Table 1 The effect of different doses of allicin on blood (g/dl) and tissue (g/g) lead content in mice (percentiles)
Parameters
Group
Lead in blood
Q1 Q2 Q3
Lead in liver
Q1 Q2 Q3
Control (I)
Lead in kidney
Q1 Q2 Q3
Lead in brain
Q1 Q2 Q3
Lead in bone
Q1 Q2 Q3
123
Zinc in liver
Q1 Q2 Q3
Control (I)
12 g/kg allicin (II)
24 g/kg allicin (III)
48 g/kg allicin (IV)
P-value
Discussion
The concomitant use of different doses of allicin prevented
the accumulation of lead in soft and hard tissues. Allicin
effectively lowered tissue lead content of lead-exposed
mice, and this effect was in a dose-dependent manner.
Allicin was capable of producing a significant reduction of
liver and kidney lead concentration in all treated groups of
mice. The effect of allicin on brain and bone lead content
was less than the effect on liver and kidney lead content.
Liver and kidneys, particularly in subacute cases, are the
target organs in lead intoxication, and accumulation of lead
in those organs results in structural damage and histochemical and histoenzymatical changes (Casteel 2006; Mudipali
2007). Therefore, removing lead from these organs will
ameliorate the toxic effects of lead.
The highest concentration of lead in the control group
was determined in bone. Bone is known as a lead pool in
the body with very slow turnover. Bone lead half-life is
estimated to be 2030 years (Pounds et al. 1991; Patrick
2006b). The conventional lead chelators are unable to
effectively chelate and remove lead from bones (Jones et al.
1994; Kalia and Flora 2005). Bone lead can contribute to
elevated blood lead levels long after the exposure no longer
exists (Patrick 2006b). Situations that increase bone
turnover, including pregnancy, lactation, osteoporosis,
hyperthyroidism, and cisplatin chemotherapy, have been
shown to increase blood lead levels as a result of the
mobilization of bone stores (Rabinowitz 1991; Silbergeld
1991; Kessler et al. 1999; Tellez-Rojo et al. 2002; Patrick
2006b) and can result in lead poisoning (Kessler et al.
1999; Riess and Halm 2007). Bone lead is also readily
transferred to the fetus during pregnancy (Gulson et al.
2003).
Allicin with doses of 48 g/kg b.w. significantly
decreased brain lead concentration. It produced a reduction
of about 45% of the brain lead concentration, and this is
comparable with the effect of the known conventional lead
124
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