| 115 day study |
Chronic (>90 days) |
All males were randomly distributed into four groups having 20 animals each, divided on 2 replicates. The route chosen in this study for exposure was via drinking water to mimic human exposure. Animals were administered our treatments, throughout the study till its completion at 115 days of age, 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 (Chioca et al., 2008). Group (3) black tea group (T), n=20: Weanling pups were exposed to ad libitum supply of 2% black tea alone in drinking water (Trivedi et al., 2006). 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 experimentation was performed in accordance with guidelines released by Cairo University Policy on Animal Care and Use, with the International regulations, as adopted and promulgated by Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. According to the above guidelines, all efforts were made to minimize the number of animals and their suffering. Eighty weanling 32-days old Wistar male rats, weighing approximately 45g were obtained from the Unit for Laboratory Animals at Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University and used in our study. They were housed in standard polypropylene cages with stainless steel wire lids, bedded with wood shavings. Animals were maintained on a 12-h light/dark cycle at a constant room temperature of 20-22 deg C and 60% humidity with free access to feed (standard commercially available pellets for laboratory rodents) and water throughout the course of the present study. |