Modulation of lead biohazards using a combination of epicatechin and lycopene in rats

The toxicity of many heavy metals is due to their ability to cause oxidative damage to tissues. Lead is one of the most important metals that pollute the natural environment due to man's impact The aim of this study is to investigate the potential protective effect of epicatechin alone or combined with lycopene against toxicity of lead in male rats. Five groups of rats were involved in this study; the first was control while the other four injected with lead acetate (100 mg/kg BW) subcutaneous for 2 weeks. On the other hand, the third, fourth and fifth groups were injected with epicatechin, lycopene or epicatechin + lycopene, respectively. Results obtained showed that, the combined treatment (epicatechin + lycopene) exert its effects (100%) against toxic effects against lead by lowering the liver enzymes alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and gamma glutamyle transferase (GGT) activities and decrease lipid peroixdation (MDA) and enhances the superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity. The high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c) level was significantly decreased and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) level was statistically significantly increased in lead-injected rats as compared with control group. The combined treatment with epicatechin and lycopene justify these levels to nearly normal values. The erythrocyte level of total glutathione was decreased in lead-injected rats as compared with control group (p < 0.001). The combined effect is significantly higher than individual treatment lycopene alone or epicatechin. A negative correlation was found between the blood lead and SOD (r = -0.6) and glutathione (r = -0.81) while a positive correlation with MDA level (r = 0.7).