Some biochemical effects of sub-acute oral administration of l-arginine on monosodium glutamate-fed wistar albino rats 2: Serum alkaline phosphatase, total acid phosphatase and aspartate aminotransferase activities

Abstract

The present study is aimed at substantiating whether monosodium glutamate, MSG, could induce toxic effects at an appreciably lower dose and to examine the possible role of arginine, ARG, on such MSG-induced effects. Thus, MSG at a dose of 5 mg kg-1 body weight was administered to adult male Wistar rats by oral intubation. Treatment was daily and lasted for 28 days. The MSG treatment significantly (p<0.05) decreased the serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity (71.97%) but increased the activities of the serum total acid phosphatase (TAP) (6222.80%) and the serum Aspartate Amino Transferase (AST) (66.86%) and the serum aspartate aminotransferase-to-alanine aminotransferase (AST-to-ALT) ratio (56.59%). Arginine (ARG) (20 mg kg-1 b.wt.) co-administered with MSG significantly (p<0.05) decreased the serum Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP) activity (90.47%) representing a decrease of only 18.50% relative to the MSG-treatment alone, but increased the serum Total Acid Phosphatase (TAP) activity (11119.27%), the serum Aspartate Aminotransferase (AST) activity (133.35%) and the serum aspartate aminotransferase-to-alanine aminotransferase (AST-to-ALT) ratio (147.25%). The results showed that MSG at a dose of 5 mg kg-1 b.wt. probably affected the synthesis of the above enzymes and that ARG at 20 mg kg-1 b.wt. potentiated the MSG-induced effects. Thus, ARG at 20 mg kg-1 b.wt. may significantly exacerbate the possible MSG-induced adverse effect on the prostate and major organs with high metabolic activities especially the liver. © 2010 Academic Journals Inc.