The role of lupeol against pesticides induced oxidative liver damage

With the increasing population, the use of pesticides in agricultural lands is increasing every year to meet the demand for food. Pesticides are chemicals used to control harmful organisms such as some insects and fungi. There are many studies showing that pesticide residues accumulate on fruits and vegetables and this accumulation is well above acceptable limits. Excessive pesticide use causes many environmental problems and threatens human health as well as non-target organisms. It has been reported that the common use of pesticides leads to the earth, water, air pollution, and food contamination by interacting with surfaces contain pesticides. The exposure to pesticides increases when those foods consumed by adults and children through diet. Organophosphorus pesticides are the most widely used group of pesticides in the world today after and organochlorine pesticide Dichloro diphenyl trichloroethane (DDT) was banned. Because the organophosphorus pesticide is a good alternative and easily biodegradable more than organochloride pesticides. However, despite their easy degradability, organophosphorus pesticides have higher acute toxicity, especially on mammals, and result in the death of approximately 100,000 people annually. Also, in case of exposure with pesticides, oxidative stress parameters increase but these mechanisms are not fully understood. For this reason, there are many aspects to be investigated about of metabolism of pesticides. Moreover, it has been stated in many studies that chronic exposure to organophosphorus pesticides can lead to various health problems, such as neurodegenerative disorders and respiratory diseases. In case of exposure to pesticides, oxidative stress parameters increase and these mechanisms are not fully understood. There are many in vitro and in vivo studies in the literature regarding oxidative damage showing that it is induced by free radicals as a result of AChE inhibition in the organisms after exposure to organophosphorus pesticides. However, there are many aspects to be investigated about of metabolism of pesticides. There are various experimental studies have been carried out on antioxidants that have healing and protective effects against oxidative damage caused by pesticides. Lupeol is a triterpene found in fruits and vegetables such as white cabbage, fig, mango, strawberry, and concord grape. It has been shown that lupeol has an anti-inflammatory, antimutagenic, anti- cancerogenic, cardioprotective, and hepatoprotective features in various studies. Our study aims that to determine the liver toxicity caused by pesticides whit a wide range of uses, effects of lupeol that have antioxidant features in terms of liver toxicity, and to draw attention to the ways of protection from this condition that may impair human health. In this study, the male Wistars albino rats were randomly divided into nine groups of seven animals each. Control groups were given saline, 50 mg kg -1 corn oil, and 20 mg kg -1 lupeol via gavage, respectively. Pesticide groups respectively were given 50 mg kg-1 malathion, 10 mg kg-1 chlorpyrifos, and 50 mg kg-1 tebuconazole via gavage. And the other three pesticide groups were given the same doses of pesticide and also 20 mg kg -1 lupeol via gavage to investigate the antioxidant role for ten days. Liver tissue was removed from the dissected rats after exposure and histological, immunohistochemical and biochemical, examinations were performed. Here in this work, under the light microscope, histological changes in the liver were examined by using hematoxylin-eosin and Masson trichome dye and Proliferating cell nuclear antigen positive cell numbers were examined by immunohistochemical methods. Also, liver reactive oxygen species, lipid peroxidation and glutathione levels, catalase, superoxide dismutase, liver, and serum acetylcholinesterase activities were determined by the biochemical method. ELISA was used to determine acetylcholinesterase and tumor necrosis factor-α levels. It was found out that when lupeol as given with pesticides, lupeol showed healing and protecting effect for all parameters on the damages pesticides caused. As a conclusion, using lupeol to minimize the damage caused by pesticides, which are used worldwide, on the liver was proven for the first time and this finding can make a contribution to clinical studies in the future.