Melatonin alleviates aluminium chloride-induced immunotoxicity. - GreenMedInfo Summary

The present study aimed to investigate whether melatonin (MT) treatment can attenuate immunotoxicity induced by aluminum chloride (AlCl) in rat spleen. Forty-eight healthy male Wistar rats were randomly allocated and treated with AlCland/or MT. Rats were orally administered with AlClfor 90 days, from 61st days, rats were injected intraperitoneally with MT for 30 days. Firstly, we found that MT relieved the AlCl-induced immunosuppression by improving spleen structural damage, CD3and CD4T lymphocyte subsets, IL-2 and TNF-α mRNA expressions and decreasing CD8T lymphocyte subsets. Secondly, MT attenuated the AlCl-induced oxidative stress in rat spleen by decreasing the levels of ROS and MDA, while increasing the activities of SOD and CAT. Thirdly, MT relieved the AlCl-induced apoptosis in rat spleen by increasing the MMP and Bcl-2 mRNA and protein expressions, while decreasing apoptosis rates, activity of Caspase-3 and pro-apoptotic gene expression. Finally, MT increased Nrf2 nuclear translocation, and Nrf2 target genes (HO-1, NQO1, SOD1 and CAT) mRNA expressions in the spleen of AlCl-exposed rat. These results suggest that MT may alleviate AlCl-induced immunotoxicity by inhibiting oxidative stress and apoptosis associated with the activation of Nrf2 signaling pathway, which could lay the foundation for the treatment of AlClimmunotoxicity.