Author(s)

Kun Tang¹, Jian Li¹, Shuang Yin¹, Hongrui Guo¹, Jie Deng¹, Hengmin Cui^1,2*

¹Key Laboratory of Animal Diseases and Environmental Hazards of Sichuan Province, Ya’an, China.
²College of Veterinary Medicine, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya’an, China.

The purpose of this study was to observe the histopathological lesions and oxidative damage induced by dietary nickel chloride (NiCl₂) in the thymus. A total of 280 one-day-old avian broilers were divided into four groups and fed on a corn-soybean basal diet as the control diet or the same basal diet supplemented with 300, 600, and 900 mg/kg of NiCl₂ for 42 days. In the NiCl₂-treated groups, the broiler weight and thymic relative weight were significantly (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01) decreased. Histopathologically, thymic corpuscles were increased and enlarged; the reticular cells were degenerate and necrotic, and lymphocytes were slightly decreased and loosely arranged in the medulla of thymus in the 600 mg/kg and 900 mg/kg groups. The activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), and the ability to inhibit hydroxy radical and glutathione (GSH) content were significantly (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01) lower in the NiCl₂-treated groups than those in the control group, while MDA content was higher. The above-mentioned results demonstrated that dietary NiCl₂ in excess of 300 mg/kg could reduce the broiler weight and thymic relative weight, and cause histopathological lesions and oxidative damage in the thymus, which finally impaired the thymic function.

Nickel Chloride, Histopathological Lesions, Oxidative Damage, Thymus, Broiler

Tang, K. , Li, J. , Yin, S. , Guo, H. , Deng, J. and Cui, H. (2014) Effects of Nickel Chloride on Histopathological Lesions and Oxidative Damage in the Thymus. Health, 6, 2875-2882. doi: 10.4236/health.2014.621326.