The blood constituents of gossypol-treated, protein-malnourished Wistar rats

Gossypol was administered in Goya olive oil to low protein-fed (LP, protein-malnourished) and normal protein-fed (NP, control) adult male albino Wistar rats for 4 and 8 weeks at 20 mg/kg body weight/rat/day. At the end of the experiment, the rats were killed and blood was drawn from the rats by cardiac puncture and subjected to hematological and biochemical analyses. The data obtained were analyzed by two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The interaction of the treatments produced significant effects on serum levels of sodium, potassium, cholesterol, triglyceride, urea, glutamate oxalate transaminase, glutamate pyruvate transaminase, amylase and blood platelet count (P < 0.001), and uric acid (P < 0.01). Significant effects were produced on serum phosphate, albumin and blood reticulocyte count (P < 0.05) but not on packed cell volume, red blood cell count, white blood cell (WBC) count and WBC differential counts, hemoglobin concentration, creatinine, creatinine phosphokinase and alkaline phosphatase (P < 0.05). The administration of gossypol reduced the level of transaminases, cholesterol and uric acid in LP and NP rats, increased the levels of triglycerides, amylase, platelet and reticulocyte count in LP rats but decreased them in NP rats. The implications of the findings are discussed.