Study of Aspartate Aminotransferase Activity in Intoxified Rat by Cadmium

摘要

The current study was designed to investigate the effects of cadmium administration on the AST (Aspartate aminotransferase) and its isoenzyme activities in the serum and liver for durations of 15 and 60 days, respectively. AST isoenzymes were separated by gel filtration chromatography technique and evaluated kinetically. Results showed significant increases in the serum AST activities up to 47 and 38.35% upon Cd administrations of 0.25 and 0.5 mg kg, respectively. This increase was not time and dose dependent in the long period. At the end of each period, the specific activity both isoenzymes in the serum increased significantly (p<0.05) while in the liver, mitochondrial AST activity increased as compared to cytosolic AST activity. We concluded that the total serum AST activity was not dose and time dependent. However, the changes of liver AST isoenzymes in the short and long periods might be due to hepatotoxicity following oxidative stress and delayed synthesis of AST isoenzymes, respectively.