Archives
International Journal of Zoology and Applied Biosciences Research Article
Zinc protects against arsenic induced neurotoxicity and reproductive damage in nulliparous female rats
G. Manikyam, Vinayakam Prakash, Korlam Sai Venkatesh and G. Swathi
Year : 2026 | Volume: 11 | Issue: 4 | Pages: 254-261
Received on: 24/04/2026
Revised on: 20/05/2026
Accepted on: 13/07/2026
Published on: 31/08/2026
-
G. Manikyam, Vinayakam Prakash, Korlam Sai Venkatesh and G. Swathi ( 2026).
Zinc protects against arsenic induced neurotoxicity and reproductive damage in nulliparous female rats
. International Journal of Zoology and Applied Biosciences, 11( 4), 254-261.
-
click to view the cite format
Abstract
Arsenic contamination in drinking water poses serious risks during pregnancy, affecting both fetal development and maternal health. This study explored whether low-dose zinc supplementation could protect against arsenic-induced reproductive toxicity and oxidative stress in the maternal brain using a rat model. Pregnant Wistar rats (n=32, 8 per group) received normal water (control), 50 ppm sodium arsenite, 50 ppm arsenic plus 5 ppm zinc (as ZnCl?), or zinc alone from gestation day 1 to 18. On day 18, dams were sacrificed to evaluate reproductive outcomes and oxidative stress markers in mitochondrial fractions of the cerebral cortex, cerebellum, and hippocampus. Arsenic exposure alone caused significant reproductive impairment, increasing post-implantation loss to 27.27 ± 3.85% (vs. 7.14 ± 1.20% in controls; P<0.001) and reducing live fetuses to 8.00 ± 0.69 (vs. 13.00 ± 0.82; P<0.001). It also triggered pronounced oxidative stress in the maternal brain, with lipid peroxidation rising sharply (e.g., 1.888 ± 0.046 vs. 1.112 ± 0.094 nmol MDA/g tissue in cerebral cortex; P<0.001) and antioxidant enzyme activities (Mn-SOD, Cu/Zn-SOD, catalase, GPx, GR, GST) dropping by 30-55% (P<0.001). Co-administration of zinc substantially reversed these effects: post-implantation loss fell to 16.67 ± 2.45% (P<0.05 vs. arsenic alone), lipid peroxidation decreased by 35-42%, and enzyme activities recovered 55-80% toward control values (P<0.001). These results indicate that gestational arsenic exposure induces marked reproductive toxicity and brain oxidative damage in dams, while low-dose zinc offers robust protection by enhancing antioxidant defenses and limiting lipid peroxidation. Zinc supplementation may represent a safe, affordable strategy to counteract arsenic toxicity in exposed pregnant populations.
Keywords
Arsenic toxicity, Zinc supplementation, Gestational exposure, Reproductive toxicity, Oxidative stress.
-
Full Article PDF (3)
Copy Rights
© The Author(s) 2026. This article is published by International Journal of Zoology and Applied Biosciences under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (creativecommons.org), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
