Original Article    OPEN ACCESS

Histological effects of chronic administration of efavirenz on lateral geniculate body of

adult Wistar rats

Josiah Obaghwarhievwo Adjene1, Patrick Sunday Igbigbi2, Ezekiel Uba Nwose3
1Department of Anatomy, School of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Benin Nigeria.
2Department of Anatomy, College of Health Sciences, Delta State University Abraka Nigeria.
3Institute of Clinical Pathology & Medical Research, South West Pathology, Smollett Street Albury, NSW Australia.

Citation: Adjene JO, Igbigbi PS, Nwose EU. Histological effects of chronic administration of efavirenz lateral geniculate body of adult Wistar rats. North Am J Med Sci 2010; 2: 1-4.   
Doi:10.4297/najms.2010.11
Availability: www.najms.org
ISSN: 1947 – 2714

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.

Correspondence to: Dr. Uba Nwose, SWPS 590 Smollett Street, Albury NSW 2640, Australia. Tel.: +612 60581651, Email: ezekiel.nwose@gsahs.health.nsw.gov.au