Skip to content
2000
Volume 20, Issue 5
  • ISSN: 1573-4072
  • E-ISSN: 1875-6646

Abstract

Background: Anemia is a global hematological disorder. Earthworms have antimicrobial, antispasmodic, antihypertensive, antiallergic, anti-inflammatory, and anticoagulant properties. Objective: Our study aimed to investigate the anti-anemic activity of the earthworm extract (AcE) on phenylhydrazine-induced hemolytic anemia in rats. Methods: Eighteen adult male albino rats were randomly divided into 3 groups (n = 6 per group) as follows: Control, PHZ, and AcE-treated groups. Induction of anemia was done by intraperitoneal administration of phenylhydrazine (40 mg/kg) for 2 consecutive days. Treatment of AcE by intraperitoneal injection (45 mg/kg) for six successive days. Results: Treatment of anemic rats with AcE extract caused significant increases in red blood cells (RBCs), hemoglobin (HB), hematocrit (HCT), total protein (TP), albumin, glutathione reduced (GSH), catalase (CAT), and glutathione-S-transferase (GST), as compared to the PHZ group. While, mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), malondialdehyde (MDA), and nitric oxide (NO) levels significantly decreased after intraperitoneal administration of AcE, when compared to the PHZ group. Liver sections from the AcE-treated group restored the normal micromorphological features of the liver. The expression of caspase-3 was weak and/or there was no expression in the liver sections from AcE groups. AcE caused a significant reduction in the incidence of DNA damage, which appeared as less DNA in the tails. Conclusion: The present research sheds light on the antianemic efficacy of AcE in rats. This study reveals that AcE has antianemic activity, which can be linked to its iron and branched-chain amino acid content, as well as antioxidant and anti-apoptotic properties.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/cbc/10.2174/0115734072261428230925062410
2024-06-01
2025-06-18
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/content/journals/cbc/10.2174/0115734072261428230925062410
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test