Correlation of liver and blood reduced glutathione levels and neutrophil cell count in honey fed wistar rats

G. E. Umukoro¹*, B. O. George² and J. T. Wilson³

¹Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty Clinical Sciences.

²Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science,

³Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, Delta State University Abraka Nigeria.

Corresponding Author E-mail: umukorogezhe2002@yahoo.com.

ABSTRACT: Liver and blood reduced glutathione (GSH) levels and neutrophil cell counts were estimated in a group of wistar rats fed with honey. The rats were divided into four groups. Group1 was the control and the animals in this group were fed with rat chow without honey substitute, the group2 was fed with 20% honey, group3 was fed with 30% honey and the group4 was fed with 40% honey. The results of the liver and blood GSH and neutrophil cell count are liver GSH: Gp 1(14.66%) Gp2 (16.05%) Gp3 (19.00%) Gp4(19.30%); blood GSH: Gp1 (28.94%) Gp2 (31.21%) Gp3(30.28%) and Gp 4(29.99%), neutrophilcellcountª109/l:Gp1(1.43±0.19)Gp2(1.21±0.32)Gp3(2.55±0.89) Gp4(1.56±1.13). When these results were compared with the results obtained from white blood cell differential count(WBC ª109/l: (Gp1=2.82±0.53),Gp2(2.78±0.45),Gp3,(7.29±2.21),Gp4(4.61±3.54).Observations show that there was reduced neutrophil cell count. This reduction widens with increasing honey in feed. Honey may reduce blood GSH level. This observation requires further investigation in order to ascertain the overall effect of honey on the oxidative homeostasis.

KEYWORDS: Liver; glutathione; neutrophil count; white blood cell count; honey

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