Results: Exposure of rats to mercuric chloride caused a significant increase the lipid peroxidation level along with corresponding decrease in the reduced glutathione and various antioxidant enzymes in liver. And increase in serum: glucose level, APL and transaminases activities and decreased in total protein and albumin levels. Furthermore, treatment with mercuric chloride caused a marked elevation of liver weight and decreased body weight. Supplementation of sodium selenite resulted in decreased of lipid peroxidation level and in the serum: AST, ALT and APL activities were decreased along with increase in total protein, albumin and liver GSH levels. The activities of antioxidants enzymes: glutathione peroxidase (GSH -Px) and glutathione –S-transferase (GST) were also concomitantly restored to near normal level by sodium selenite supplementation to mercuric chloride intoxicated rats. Liver histological studies have confirmed the changes observed in biochemical parameters and proved the beneficial role of sodium selenite.
Conclusion: The results clearly demonstrate that sodium selenite treatment augments the antioxidants defense mechanism in mercuric chloride induced toxicity and provides evidence that it may have a therapeutic role in free radical mediated diseases. ER -