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Coordination Impairment Induced in Male Albino Rats by Methylmercury Chloride

Shabnum Nabi, Yusra Zaidi, Anjum Ara and Shamim Jahan Rizvi

Behavior is an important end point for studying environmental toxicants in mammals because it can reveal effects on the nervous system. Therefore present study was designed as a model to analyze the long lasting effects of Methyl mercury chloride in male animals with a focus on emotional behavior. Male albino rats of wistar strain were exposed orally to a dose of 2 mg/kg of Methyl mercury chloride, 100 mg/kg Vitamin-E and 100 mg/kg Acetyl-L-Carnitine for 28 days. During this defined experimental period, control and all the treated animals were subjected to standard Open Field Apparatus for motor coordination on 0, 7th, 15th, 22nd and 29th day for 5 minutes and four observations were recorded. Exploratory activity was significantly declined in rats treated with Methyl mercury chloride as compared to control animals, while as it was enhanced statistically in animals subjected to vitamins. These results indicate that short-term, low doses of Methyl mercury in male albino rats can be detrimental to motor, emotional or loco motor coordination.