Investigation of the toxicity of some organophosphorus pesticides in a repeated dose study in rats

The study aimed to the investigation of the toxicity of organophosphorus pesticides malathion (MLT) and diazinon (DZN) in Wistar rats in a repeated dose study for 35 days. MLT and DZN in corn oil vehicle were oral administered. Body and organs weights, plasma and brain cholinesterase activities, serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activities, histopathological changes in liver and kidney, and some parameters of the immune function, such as leukocyte formula, spleen weight and cellularity, spleen lymphocytes proliferation in response to concanavalin A (Con A) were investigated; the potential oxidative stress (malondialdehyde in plasma and brain, and blood catalase activity) was also evaluated. No clinical toxicity signs attributed to pesticides were noted; no significant changes in the organ weights have been found. Body weight tends slightly to increase, predominantly in DZN treated rats. The results suggest that plasma cholinesterase is more susceptible than brain cholinesterase to the inhibitory effect of DZN and MLT. Other serum biochemical parameters showed no significant difference. DZN produced a marked increase of the number of spleen lymphocytes without a significant gain of the relative spleen weight. The both pesticides produced an increase of the number of mononuclear cells/weight spleen. The splenic lymphocyte proliferation has not been influenced by MLT or DZN treatment. Histopathological observations identified some changes (vasodilatation, microvacuoles, and granular dystrophy) in the liver, with MLT, inducing macrovacuolar steatosis. The study indicates that repeated exposure, at subclinical doses, to organophosphorus MLT and DZN causes some biochemical, histopathological and immune alterations in rats.