Deltamethrin Induces Apoptosis in Adult Male Rats Model and the Role of Melatonin

Deltamethrin is considered one of the widely used insecticides in the agricultural and veterinary fields, its toxicity (apoptosis) is linked to oxidative stress, so melatonin was chosen as a potent antioxidant. To conduct this study twenty adult male rats were divided into 4 groups (A, B, C and D) (5 animals /group). Groups (A, B and C) were treated with distilled water (2 ml/kg, orally (P.O.), deltamethrin (25 mg/kg, P.O.), and melatonin (12.5 mg/kg, intraperitoneal, (I.P.) respectively, while group (D) was injected with melatonin (12.5 mg/kg, I.P.) 15 minutes before deltamethrin (25 mg/kg, O.P.), the duration of the treatment in all groups extended to five consecutive days. Then, on the sixth day the rats were sacrificed for brain, heart and liver harvesting to detect apoptosis using (TUNEL assay). The group (B) recorded a positive result for TUNEL stain, represented by the appearance of a high number of positive brown stained apoptotic bodies in the three organs. While group (D) recorded a clear decrease in the positive brown stained apoptotic bodies in the three tissues compared to the group (B). We conclude from our current study that melatonin has effects against apoptosis which induced by deltamethrin in rats