Background: The brain damage induced by hypothyroidism affects numerous important areas. Although the management of hypothyroidism by levothyroxine sodium (thyroxine), is achieved, it still needs close monitoring for fear of hyperthyroidism development. Therefore, it is crucial for seeking natural products like black seeds that has a lot of evidence which suggests its pharmacological efficacy. The current study aimed to determine the scavenging role of thyroxine and nigella, on the cerebellar cortex of adult male albino rats in the hypothyroidism induced by carbimazole.
Materials and Methods: Sixty adult male albino rats were equally distributed into six groups; 10 rats in each (control, sham control, carbimazole, Levo thyroxine sodium, nigella sativa oil and combined group). Hormonal assay was done by measurements of serum TSH, T3 andT4, oxidation marker malondialdhyde (MDA) and glutathione (GSH) were also performed. Histological and immunohistochemical staining by Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) & caspase-3 immunostaining was carried out and followed by histomorphometric analysis. Expression of α-Synuclein gene was done using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
Results: Pointed out that thyroxine and nigella individually ameliorated the histopathological alteration like vacuolations and dark nuclei, gliosis as well as apoptosis induced by carbimazole. These changes were subjected to phenotypic quantitation. In the combined therapy group, the improvement of these changes were remarkable.
Conclusion: Hypothyroidism induced degenerative changes in the cerebellar cortex, that were ameliorated by receiving either thyroxine or nigella individually, with more pronounced results achieved in thyroxine versus nigella. In addition, combined treatment reversed the mentioned parameters to nearly its normal level.