Background Cadmium (Cd) is a highly toxic heavy metal that adversely affects both human and animal health. Chronic cadmium exposure causes serious kidney damage. The current study investigated the protective role of cerium oxide nanoparticles (CeO2NPs) against cadmium chloride (CdCl2)-induced renal injury. Method One hundred and twenty male albino rats were divided into 6 equal groups. Group (C): considered as control group which was given distilled water orally. Group (NC.1 and NC.5): rats were injected i.p. with nanoceria at a dose of (0.1 and 0.5 mg/kg b.wt), respectively, twice a week for 2 weeks starting at the 15th day of the study. Group (Cd): rats were received CdCl2 orally (10 mg/kg b.wt) daily for 28 days. Groups (Cd + NC.1 and Cd + NC.5): rats were given CdCl2 orally (10 mg/kg b.wt) for 28 days and CeO2NPs by i.p. injection at a dose of (0.1 and 0.5 mg/kg b.wt), respectively, twice a week for 2 weeks started at the 15th day of the experiment. Results The Cd group exhibited a significant increase in the serum levels of IL-1β, KIM-1, Cys-C, and β2-MG, downregulation of the antioxidant initiator genes such as Nrf-2, and up-regulation of apoptosis markers such as nibrin gene (NBN). Urine examination showed a high level of microalbuminuria, abnormal physical, chemical, and microscopical changes in comparison with control groups. Conculsion Remarkably, posttreatment with CeO2NPs showed significant improvement in kidney histopathological picture and relieved the alterations in kidney biomarkers, inflammatory markers, urine abnormalities, and expressions of different genes as Nrf-2 and NBN.

The current study was performed to evaluate the effect of acute and chronic hepatotoxicity induced by paracetamol and thioacetamide respectively on serum hormonal levels and biochemical parameters. Female Wistar albino rats were divided into 3 equal groups (C), (P) and (T). Group (C) were kept as control, group (P) were received paracetamol orally (500 mg/kg b.wt) daily for 15 days and those of group (T) were injected thioacetamide (200 mg/kg b.wt) intraperitonialy twice/ week for 90 days. In P group, results revealed significant elevation in liver enzyme activities (ALT, AST and ALP), T4, insulin (7 th day), estrogen (7 th and 15 th days), triglycerides (7 th day) and cholesterol levels throughout the experiment while serum proteins and T4 (15 th day) showed significant decreased values. Whereas, at 90 th days of chronic intoxicated group (T) resulted in significant elevation in liver enzyme activities (ALT, AST and ALP), bilirubin, estrogen, T4, triglycerides (60 th and 90 th days) and T3 (120 th day). While the levels of T4 and cortisol (60 th day), serum total protein, albumin, globulin (90 th day) and insulin (120 th day) showed significant decreased values when compared to control group. In conclusion, both paracetamol and thioacetamide cause different degrees of damage in liver of rats leading to clear changes in their hormonal and biochemical profiles.

Cadmium is one of the most harmful environmental pollutants that cause various risks to animal and human health (Zhu et al., 2019). It is a highly toxic metal and is present commonly in the living world (Moulis and Thévenod 2010; Liu et al. 2019). Cadmium is naturally available in the soil, water as well as air due to wide utilization in various industries such as plastics, fuels, pigments, batteries, metal plating and fertilizers (Genchi et al. 2020; Umar et al. 2021).