Forty male and female albino rats, arranged into four groups (ten per each) including two control groups and two groups for acrylamide-treatment (25 mg/kg B.W.), were used in the present work. Acrylamide was intragastrically administered every other day until twenty-five days and the endpoint was associated with temporary hind limb paralysis. The body weight was determined throughout the experiment. At the end of the experiment, the animals were sacrificed and plasma, whole brain and spinal cord were separated. SDS-PAGE was carried out for olfactory lobe, cerebral hemisphere, cerebellum, medulla oblongata and spinal cord of both control and acrylamide-treated animals. For histopathological studies, specimens of cerebral hemisphere, cerebellum and spinal cord were fixed in 10% formal saline, and processed for preparing paraffin sections 5µm thick stained with Harris haematoxylin and eosin. Brain's weight, cerebral hemisphere and cerebellum attained marked enlargement in male, meanwhile the females showed obvious increase of body weight during experimentation. Cerebellar cell layer thickness increased in male more than females. In addition, the spinal cord exhibit different pathological responses to acrylamide neurotoxicity and the number and sizes of motoneurons increased in males more than females. Acrylamide-treatment affected cerebrum and cerebellum of both sexes; however, female cerebellar cortex was less susceptible to acrylamide-intoxication comparing with males. Sex variations were also assessed by marked changes of protein expression of protein bands in different brain regions by SDS-PAGE in both control and under neurotoxication of acrylamide.
Key words: Sex differences, Nervous system, Acrylamide, Histopathology, SDS-PAGE electrophoresis
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