Effect Of Deficiency Of Some Trace Elements On The Basal Ganglia:

Mohamed Magdi Zaki Sayed Ahmed

Fourty weanling albino rats of both sexes were utilized in this study. Zinc deficiency was inducedby feeding the rats a diet containing all theessential nutrients except zinc, for one, two, four,six and eight weeks. Deionized water was given andthe animals were kept in stainless-steel cages.The brain was dissected out of the skull and partof it was fixed in buffered formol-saline, embedded inparaffin wax and sectioned serially at 15 micrometersfor the histological purposes. They were stained withHx and E to study the general structure, toluidineblue to show Nissl bodies, methyl green-pyron in forRNA and DNA, Kultschitsky’s method for myelin andBielschowsky’s method for neurofibrils.For the histochemical investigations, otherspecimens were frozen and sectioned at 15 microns.They were treated with different reactions to detectthe activity of the .enzymes; .alkaline phosphatase,lactate dehydrogenase, NADH diaphorase, acetylcholinestrase, nonspecific esterases, ATPase, succinicdehydrogenase and acid phosphatase.For the quantitative study, the eye piecemicrometer was used to measure the diameters and thegraphical method of Dornfeld et al. was used tocalculate the total number of cells in the caudateputamen.Volumetric measurements were done tocalculate the size of the cells and their nuclei.Then the nucleo/cytoplasmic ratio was deduced.Anorexia, growth retardation and skin change wereobserved in zinc deficient animals.The total cell number of the caudate-putamendecreased while the vascularity increased. The sizesof the cells and their nuclei were reduced, however,the nuclei were affected more. Chromatolysis occuredand DNA content of the nucleus decreased. Thethickness and stainability of myelin and neurofibrilsdecreasedThe activity of alkaline phosphatase, lactatedehydrogenase, NADH diaphorase, acetylcholinesteraseand nonspecific esterases decreased markedly in thenerve cells. However, the activity of succinicdehydrogenase remained unchanged. In contrast, theactivity of ATPase and acid phophatase increased.