CHRONIC EFFECT OF CADMIUM AND COPPER EXPOSURE ON THE HISTOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF THE SMALL INTESTINE IN RAT EMBRYOS

The search for bioantagonistic elements that mitigate cadmium toxicity and accumulation in the body is a pressing area of research. In this context, investigating the potential of trace element succinates holds promise, given their increasing application in medicine, biological experimentation, and pharmaceutical development. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of chronic, isolated intragastric administration of cadmium chloride, and its combined administration with copper succinate, on the small intestine morphogenesis in developing rat embryos. Pregnant rats were exposed daily throughout pregnancy by oral gavage with solutions containing the respective agents at a dose of 2.0 mg/kg. Chronic daily exposure of pregnant rats to cadmium chloride via gavage resulted in structural alterations in the small intestine of embryos, evident as early as day 13 and becoming more pronounced by day 19. Compared to controls, cadmium exposure led to a thinner small intestine wall and a larger villus diameter in the intestinal mucosa. Notably, mucosal crypts were absent in the cadmium-exposed group at both time points. Conversely, the combined administration of cadmium chloride with copper succinate significantly restored most of the investigated histological parameters in the small intestine of embryos at both study days. Thus, the analysis of the obtained data has proven the effect of the isolated introduction of cadmium chloride leads to a reliable thickening of the villi of the small intestine and thinning of the mucosal walls in comparison to the control, and with the combined introduction of cadmium chloride with copper succinates, the indicators of the thickness of the mucous layer of the wall of the small intestine of the embryos had a tendency recovery to control group data. The obtained data allow us to consider copper succinate as a bioantagonist of cadmium chloride when administered intragastrically in the indicated doses in an experiment on rats.