Vol. 11, Special Issue 2 (2022)

Author(s):
Gissa M Jose, K Bharavi, Afroz Jahan and G Srinivasa Rao

Abstract:
Cadmium, a heavy metal and an environmental toxicant, is regarded as a potent endocrine disruptor resulting in uterine abnormalities. Quercetin, a powerful antioxidant flavonoid, has heavy metal chelating property, smooth muscle relaxant property and estrogenic effect. Present study designed to evaluate the ameliorative effect of quercetin on cadmium induced structural and functional changes in mice myometrium. Swiss albino mice were divided into four groups with 6 mice in each viz control, cadmium treated (administration of cadmium only), cadmium and quercetin treated and quercetin alone treated for one month. The ex vivo study on uterine horn strip revealed a decrease in the mean EC50 value for oxytocin in cadmium group, which might be the implication of estrogen mimicking effect of cadmium. The co-administration of quercetin and cadmium increased mean EC50 value, suggesting the reversal effect of quercetin in cadmium induced changes. But, quercetin treatment alone showed a reduced EC50 value, which was possibly due to its estrogenic property. Thus, quercetin exhibited a contradictory behavior in alone administration and co-administration with cadmium. Histopathology of cadmium group in estrus animals revealed degenerative changes in the glandular epithelium, congestion and desquamation of lining epithelium. The co-administration of quercetin and cadmium showed normal structure with lining epithelium and glands. Our study revealed that quercetin might have some ameliorative effect on cadmium induced structural damages in uterus, even though it exhibited a contradictory effect on functional changes.