Protein metabolic profiles and histopathological studies in heart tissue of rats during cypermethrin toxicosis

Cypermethrin is the most widely used Type II pyrethroid pesticide because of its high effectiveness against target species and its low mammalian toxicity reported so far. It is a fast-acting neurotoxin and is known to cause free radical-mediated tissue damage. On exposure to oral sublethal doses (41 mg/kg bw) of cypermethrin as single dose, double dose and multiple dose with 48 h interval the various profiles of protein metabolism were studied in different groups of rat heart tissue. Total proteins showed decrement; whereas free amino acids, the activities of protease, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase and glutamate dehydrogenase and ammonia significantly increased in cypermethrin exposed rats. Urea content increase at all doses of exposure was not statistically significant. Thus variation in the protein metabolic profiles of the rat exposed to cypermethrin indicates its toxic effect on the cellular metabolism thereby leading to impaired protein synthetic machinery is clearly evidenced by histopathological studies.