Environmental & Analytical Toxicology

Concomitant Effect of Chlorpyrifos and Intranasal Endotoxin Administration on Apoptosis Related Protein Expression in Lung of Mice

Abstract

AA Chougule, RS Brar, HS Banga, ND Singh, A Goyal and PD Gadhave

Pesticides and bacterial endotoxin have been implicated in variety of respiratory dysfunctions. In present study, mice were administered chlorpyrifos at 3 mg/Kg BW/day for 30 days (by oral gavage) and/or challenged with bacterial endotoxin at 80 μg/mice by intranasal route to investigate expression of apoptosis related proteins such as p53, Bax and caspase-3 in lung. The results of immunohistochemistry of lung showed significant increase in number of p53 expressing cells in chlorpyrifos treated mice as compared to control while endotoxin and chlorpyrifos+endotoxin treated mice showed increased number of p53 expressing cells as compared to control and chlorpyrifos treated mice. Chlorpyrifos or endotoxin administration resulted in increased expression of Bax and Caspase-3 while chlorpyrifos treated and endotoxin challenged mice showed synergistic effect on expression of these proteins. From these results, it is concluded that chlorpyrifos and/or endotoxin increased critical apoptosis related proteins such as p53, Bax and Caspase-3 in lung of mice, which may play pivotal role in pathophysiology of pulmonary dysfunctions resulting from exposure to pesticides and endotoxin.