Influence of quercetin on haematological indices and biomarkers of oxidative stress in the serum of rats exposed to atrazine.

The study was carried out to compare the effects of quercetin (QT) at doses of 5mg/kg (Q5) and 10mg/kg (Q10) against the hematological toxicity and oxidative stress caused by atrazine (ATR). Male rats were orally gavaged with ATR at a dose of 120mg/kg for 16 days. Erythropenia, leucopenia was observed in ATR treated rats. Other hematological variables such as packed cell volume (PCV), hemoglobin concentration (HGB), mean cell hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), neutrophils (NEU), lymphocytes (LYM) and blood platelet (PLT) showed no significant change with respect to the control values. The activities of the antioxidant defense molecules including superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), glutathione-S-transferase (GST) and glutathione (GSH) were decreased; malondialdehyde (MDA) level increased but catalase (CAT) activity showed no change.Co-administration of Q5 did not prevent the oxidative stress and the hematological alterations caused by ATR. In these groups of animals, the values of PLT and NEUT were increased while LYM decreased indicating more pronounce hematological changes. The changes in both the biochemical and hematological variables were normalized to the control values on co-administration of Q10. We suggest that the antioxidant activities of QT at a doses of 10mg/kg could be responsible for its protective effects against ATR-induced oxidative stress and hematological toxicity.