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. 2010 Jan;2(1):1-4.
doi: 10.4297/najms.2010.11.

Histological effects of chronic administration of efavirenz on lateral geniculate body of adult Wistar rats

Josiah Obaghwarhievwo Adjene  1 , Patrick Sunday Igbigbi, Ezekiel Uba Nwose
Affiliations

Histological effects of chronic administration of efavirenz on lateral geniculate body of adult Wistar rats

Josiah Obaghwarhievwo Adjene et al. N Am J Med Sci. 2010 Jan.

Abstract

Background: The effects of chronic administration of efavirenz commonly used as part of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for the treatment of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) type-1 on the weight of the brain and inferior colliculus of adult Wistar rats was carefully studied.

Methods and materials: The rats of both sexes (n = 24), with average weight of 200g were randomly assigned into two treatment (A & B) (n=16) and Control (c) (n=8) groups. The rats in the treatment group received 600mg/70kg bogy weight of efavirenz dissolved in distilled water daily for 30days through the orogastric tube. The control group received equal volume of distilled through the same route. All rats were fed with grower's mash and given water liberally. The rats were sacrificed by cervical dislocation method on the thirty-first day of the experiment and the lateral geniculate body was carefully dissected out and quickly fixed in 10% formal saline for histological study.

Results: The findings indicate that rats in the treated group showed some cellular degenerative changes like sparse cellular population, pyknotic nuclei with some microcystic changes and edema in the stroma of the lateral geniculate body as compared to the control group.

Conclusion: Chronic administration of efavirenz may have an adverse effect on the visual sensibilities by affecting the microanatomy of the lateral geniculate body of adult Wistar rats. It is recommended that further studies aimed at corroborating these observations be carried out.

Keywords: Efavirenz; histological effects; lateral geniculate body; visual sensibilities.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Control section of lateral geniculate body (H & E method ×400)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Efavirenz-treated section of lateral geniculate body (H & E ×400)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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