The synthetic organic azo dye sunset yellow is a widely used in food products, such as drinks, yoghurts, ice cream, and sweets. The solutions of this colored dye are not stable in sunlight or in dark, particularly when common food acids (e.g. citric acid and ascorbic acid) are present. The degraded products from sunset yellow are sulphanilic acid and the sodium salt of 2-naphthalene-sulphonic acid-5-amino-6-hydroxyl. These products further undergo deamination upon prolonged sunlight irradiation to produce benzene sulfonic acid sodium salt (BSA-Na) and ammonia as final products.
The purpose of the study was to assess the toxicity BSA-Na on the liver and brain of male growing Sprague-Dawley rats. Oxidative stress and related gene transcription of the antioxidant enzymes have been assessed in male growing rats supplemented the different concentration of BSA-Na (34.8, 69.4 and 153.6 µg/kg. b.w.). The results showed that these concentrations of BSA-Na caused significant increase in the activity of the antioxidant enzymes total superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione S-transferase (GST), glutathione reductase (GR) and xanthine oxidase (XO) and significant increase in lipid peroxidation level in liver and brain of growing male rats as compared with their control. A significant retardation in growth rate was observed in rat supplemented BSA-Na. In addition, these concentrations of BSA-Na significantly caused increasein Cu/Zn super oxide dismutase (Cu/Zn SOD) gene transcription. The data clearly demonstrate that BSA-Na can result in oxidative stress in both liver and brain of the growing rat.
Key words: Oxidative strss, sunset yellow, benzene sulphonic acid sodium salt, liver, brain, Cu/Zn SOD
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