Effects of deltamethrin on nitric oxide synthase and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase in rat brain

The effects of deltamethrin on the activities of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) and the protein expression of neuronal NOS (nNOS) and PARP in rat brain were investigated in the present study. The activity of NOS was significantly increased in cortex and hippocampus at 5 h after deltamethrin treatment, and maintained at an increased level at 24 h. The activity of PARP was also elevated at the same time points in the same brain regions of treated rats. By immunohistochemical analysis, it was demonstrated that the nNOS-immunoreactive cells were markedly increased at 24 h after treatment in the cortex and hippocampus, whereas few nNOS-immunoreactive cells were observed in the same brain regions of control and treated rats at 5 h after treatment. The immunoreactivity for PARP was also increased in the same brain regions, showing the similar time course of the induction of nNOS by deltamethrin. These results indicate that deltamethrin increases the activities of NOS and PARP and initiates the protein expression of nNOS and PARP, suggesting that NOS and PARP might play important roles in neurotoxicity of deltamethrin.