Abstract:

Heavy metal toxicity and bioaccumulation caused severe damage to soil, water and environment as a result of industrialization/urbanization activities in developing and developed countries. This damage has affected different trophic levels including plants, animals and humans and has become a global concern. The use of various phytonutrients such as Quercetin (QE) has increased in recent years to avoid toxicity caused by heavy metals. Among different heavy metals, cadmium (Cd) toxicity is a major issue in the countries. Cd is a toxic heavy metal that can damage the kidneys and cause dysregulation in many lipid metabolic pathways. However, the number of studies on renal dysfunction and dyslipidemia caused by Cd is limited. We found that Cd causes renal dysfunction and dyslipidemia, and QE ameliorates these Cd-induced damages. Our results showed that Cd increased urea, uric acid, creatnine, alkene phosphatase (ALP), total bilirubin (TBIL) levels compared to the control group, while QE improved other parameters except TBIL. In addition, our findings showed that Cd increased total glyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels and decreased high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels. It was noted that QE tended to improve this dyslipidemia picture. The data presented here demonstrated that QE has a clear protective role against dyslipidemia and renal function against Cd toxicity through its hypolipidemic and antioxidative action.

Keywords: