Studies Into the Effect of Heavymetal-Induced Neurotoxicity : Effect Of Metal Mixture On Gfap Levels During Embryonic Development And Post- Natal Maturation In Rat Cortex

The chronic exposure to arsenic (As), lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) potentially causes neurotoxicity. Through drinking water, concurrent exposure to As, Pb and Cd is possible and they may have greater-than-additive/synergistic toxic responses to brain development. With the aim to investigate the effect of concurrent exposure, rats (prenatal to post natal days) were concurrently exposed to As, Pb and Cd (Metal Mixture) and their influence on brain development was investigated Western blotting was carried out to assess the Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) expression of brain cortex of control animals and MM treated animals. The results indicate that there occurs a dose and time dependent influence of these metals as assessed in terms of cyto-toxicity, GFAP immuno-staining and expression of GFAP.