Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Neuroprotective effects of thymoquinone against cerebellar histopathological changes in propylthiouracil-induced hypothyroidism in adult rats

Ebtesam Mohammed AL Jehani¹, Samar Alsaggaf², Wafaa S Ramadan^2,3 , Soad Shaker Ali²

¹Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences; ²Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; ³Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.

For correspondence:- Wafaa Ramadan Email: wramadhan@kau.edu.sa

Received: 17 November 2016 Accepted: 14 April 2017 Published: 30 May 2017

Citation: Jehani EM, Alsaggaf S, Ramadan WS, Ali SS. Neuroprotective effects of thymoquinone against cerebellar histopathological changes in propylthiouracil-induced hypothyroidism in adult rats. Trop J Pharm Res 2017; 16(5):1029-1037 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v16i5.9

© 2017 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the effects of thymoquinone (TQ) on histological and immunohistochemical changes in the cerebellar cortex induced by propylthiouracil (PTU) treatment in rats.

Methods: Thirty-two adult male albino rats were randomly divided into four groups: C, control; PTU, treatment with oral PTU to induce hypothyroidism; TQ, treatment with TQ; and PTU + TQ, concomitant treatment with oral PTU and TQ for 6 weeks. Cavalieri’s principle and physical dissector methods were employed for unbiased deduction of cerebellar granular layer volume, numerical density, and number of granular cells.

Results: In the PTU group, hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-stained sections revealed degeneration of Purkinje cells, neuronal loss, and spongiosis in the white matter. A decrease in the number of astrocytes-expressing glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and a significant decrease in granular layer cell density were also seen. Concomitant administration of TQ ameliorated histopathological changes, increased the proportion of GFAP-positive astrocytes, increased granular cell density, and significantly (p < 0.05) increased the levels of thyroid-stimulating hormones, T3 and T4.

Conclusion: TQ treatment significantly decreases cerebellar changes resulting from PTU-induced hypothyroidism, and results in the retention of neuronal structural integrity in the cerebellar cortex

Keywords: Hypothyroidism, Cerebellum, Thymoquinone, Stereology, Glial fibrillary acidic protein, Neuronal structural integrity