The result of the present study indicate that exposure of fipronil, even at low doses and for a short-term period, can induce serious hepatic, renal and hematological damage, caused presumably by increased oxidative stress involves alterations indecreasing of antioxidant-enzymes, catalase (CAT) and super dismutase (SOD). Moreover, the Ability of fipronil to induce genotoxic effects involving structural chromosome aberrations (SCAs) and sperm-shape abnormalities. The mechanism of this genotoxic effects could be also attributed to reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated oxidative stress as pre-treatment with a known antioxidant, that is, vitamin E plus selenium has shown protective effect. In addition, pre-treatment with aqueous extract of ginger rhizomes (Zingiber officinale) showed beneficial effects in ameliorating the adverse effects of fipronil. Based on the overall findings from the present investigation, the estimated no-observed-adverse-effects-level (NOAEL) of fipronil formulation via sub-acute toxicity study could be less than 1.44 mg/kg b.w., equal to 1/100 LD50.
The most important findings of this study are:
❖ Find out whether the selected sublethal doses of fipronil (FIP) formulation (COACH® 200 SC), administered orally to male albino mice, for 28 days, can cause any alterations in hematological and biochemical parameters.
❖ Determine the possible effects of sub-acute repeated dose exposure of FIP on oxidative stress indices and enzymatic antioxidants.
❖ Examine the histopathological modulations which may be happened by fipronil exposure in some vital organs, i.e. liver, kidney, spleen and testes. ❖ Explore the possible protective or ameliorative effects of selenium plus vitamin E (α- tocopherol) and/or extract of ginger rhizome (Zingiber officinale) against FIP-induced toxicity were determined.