Long‐term peroral administration of bitter apricot seeds influences cortical bone microstructure of rabbits

Abstract

Apricot seeds due to the presence of cyanogenic glycoside amygdalin belong to the popular “alternative cancer cures", although anticancer effect of amygdalin remains controversial. This in vivo study points to the effect of long‐term peroral administration of bitter apricot seeds on bone microstructure of rabbits since chronic amygdalin toxicity in relation to bone parameters has not been investigated yet. Rabbits (n = 16) were randomly divided into four experimental groups of 4 animals each. Three experimental groups S1, S2 and S3 received commercial feed for rabbits mixed with crushed bitter apricot seeds at doses 60, 300 and 420 mg/kg bw during five months, respectively. The control (C) group received no apricot seeds. The long‐term consumption of apricot seeds had no impact on total body weight, femoral weight and femoral length of rabbits. Also, microcomputed tomography (3D analysis) of cortical and trabecular bone tissues did not reveal any significant impact of amygdalin toxicity on relative bone volume, BMD, cortical bone thickness, bone surface, trabecular number, thickness, and their separation. On the other hand, histological (2D) analysis demonstrated evident changes in cortical bone microstructure consistent with a decreased density of secondary osteons in the middle part of substantia compacta due to a replacement of Haversian bone tissue by plexiform bone tissue, vasoconstriction in the primary osteons' vascular canals, Haversian canals, and decreased sizes of secondary osteons in rabbits from S1, S2 and S3 groups. These negative changes are associated with different vascularization and biomechanical properties of cortical bones.

Repro-protective activity of amygdalin and spirulina platensis in niosomes and conventional forms against aluminum chloride–induced testicular challenge in adult rats: role of CYP11A1, StAR, and HSD-3B expressions

“…The male rats’ body weight obtained data run in consistent with the previous studies which reported a marked reduction in body weight of rats treated with AlCl 3 (Yang et al, 2020 ; Buraimoh & Ojo, 2014 ; Justin-Thenmozhi et al, 2018 ). The reduced body weight as a result of AMG+AlCl 3 and AMGLN+AlCl 3 oral gavage may be attributed to AlCl 3 toxicity besides absence of negative effect of them on body weight which run in agreement with (Dogru et al, 2017 ; Kovacova et al, 2020 ). However, the ability of SP+AlCl 3 and SPLN+AlCl 3 to ameliorate the weight loss induced by AlCl 3 may be attributed to its content of highly digestible nutrients, vitamins, and minerals as previously reported by (Barkallah et al, 2020 ; Fouda & Ismail, 2017 ; Farag et al, 2016 ).…”