| NaF weanling male |
Chronic (>90 days) |
All males were randomly assigned into four groups of 20, divided on 2 replicates and orally administered our treatments for a 14-weeks period, in a 2 x 2 factorial design as follows: Group (1) control (C), n=20: Weanling pups were administered plain water. Group (2) Na-F group (F), n=20: Weanling pups were exposed to ad libitum supply of Na-F alone (Sigma Chemical Company) in drinking distilled water at 100 ppm on a mg/kg/day basis of 10.77 Na-F. Group (3) black tea group (T), n=20: Weanling pups were exposed to ad libitum supply of 2% black tea alone in drinking water. Twenty grams of black tea solids (Lipton Yellow label, Unilever Limited, India) and 1000 ml boiled drinking water were used to produce a 2% tea solution. Group (4) ameliorated group (Na-F+T), n=20: Weanling pups were exposed to ad libitum supply of 100 ppm Na-F in combination with 2% black tea solution.; Animal care as well as the experimental protocols was in compliance with guidelines of ethical standards released by Cairo University Policy on Animal Care and Use. In order to minimize animals’ suffering we intended only to use the adequate minimal number of animals requested to produce reliable scientific data. The study was performed on a total of eighty weanling 32-days-old male Wistar rats, weighing approximately 45g. Animals were procured from the Unit for Laboratory Animals at Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University and employed in our study. They were housed in standard polypropylene cages with stainless steel wire lids, bedded with wood shavings at a temperature (20-22 deg C), humidity (60%) and photoperiod (12-h light/dark cycle). Standard laboratory feed and distilled water were freely available except during the time of the experiments. |