Behavioral and biochemical alteration in albino rats exposed to monosodium glutamate as feed additives / Mariam Hasan Ali Hasan ; Supervised Mervat Mahmoud Kamel , Abeer H. Abdelrazik , Wafaa A. Hasan

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Veterinary Medicine - Department of Animal Behavior and Management

The present study investigates the effect of long term treatment (0.06,0.3 and 0.6g/kg b. wt., orally) with monosodium glutamate (MSG) in weaned rats on mood-like behaviors in the form of anxiety, hyperactivity as well as learning ability in the form of habituation and spatial memory by using elevated plus maze, open field test and Y - maze. Moreover, biochemical evaluation was carried out to detect the degenerative and oxidative changes. A marked decrease in anxiety took place and shown by significant increase in number of entries as well as time spent in open arms in elevated plus maze, in addition to a decrease in animal freezing time and increase in number of rears in open field test. Decrease in anxiety is associated with increase in blood cortisol level and disturbances in brain serotonin level. A significant increase in hyperactivity in MSG treated rats where total number of entries in elevated plus maze as well as increase in number of square crossed in open field test. This was accompanied by disturbances in dopamine in brain and acetyle choline esterase especially in striatum. In open field test habituation, impairment in habituation occurred in MSG treated rats while an enhancement of spatial memory took place by increase the spontaneous alteration in Y - maze test in MSG treated rats. This enhancement in spatial memory may be due to decrease in acetylcolinesterase enzyme or an improvement of the oxidative state in fore brain

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