HISTOLOGICAL STUDIES OF TOXICOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF PARACETAMOL ON CEREBELLUM OF ADULT FEMALE WISTAR RATS

ABSTRACT Paracetamol (acetaminophen) is recognized as a public health concern because of its potential toxic effects on human health. Therefore, the present experiment was undertaken to determinethe toxic effects of an oral intake of paracetamolon the cerebellum of adult female wistar rats. Sixteen (16) female wistar rats were randomly divided into two groups (A – B) of eight (8) rats each. Group A rats served as control and were given distilled water and group B fed 4 mg/kgbody weight of paracetamol for fourteen (14) consecutive days. At the end of the 14 days experiment, the body weight of all animals was recorded, sacrificed then the cerebellatissue were removed. The cerebellatissue were collected after sacrifice and fixed in 10 % formol calcium and subsequently processed for histological observation using Hematoxylin and Eosin staining principle. Cerebellar cortex of the control rats showed a normal morphological appearance of the cerebellum under a light microscope. The outer gray matter revealed three distinct layers, the outer molecular layer with glia cells, middle Purkinje cell layer with pyriform-shaped Purkinje cells, and inner granular layer with deeply stained granule cells. In contrast, a section of the cerebellum from the paracetamoltreated rats showed marked alterations in the area of degenerated Purkinje cells. The present histological studies revealed that paracetamol ingestion induced atrophy and neuronal loss in the cerebellum of female wistar rats.The public should be enlightened regarding dangers of paracetamolingestion and the possible adverse outcome associated with paracetamolintake.