Carrot Juice Ameliorates N-ethylmaleimide-induced Tissue Damage in Rats: Histopathologic and Immunohistochemical Changes

N-ethylmaleimide (NEM) is an alkene that is reactive towards thiols. NEM impairs the thiol dependent-antioxidant activity by alkylating endogenous sulphydryls (mainly glutathione). This study was performed to identify the effect of Daucus carota (carrot) juice on the morphological picture of tissues of rats exposed to NEM and carrot juice. The three study groups were control, NEM (0.030 mg/kg, s.c), and NEM+carrot juice (0.030 mg/kg, s.c; 0.710 ml/kg/day, oral). The rats in the NEM+carrot juice group were treated with carrot juice for one hour prior to being treated with NEM for 30 days.In the NEM-treated group, pathological examinations of the liver, kidney, stomach, thymus, brain, small intestine, testes, epididymis and prostate revealed the appearance of inflammatory cell infiltration, atrophy of seminiferous tubules, congestion, lymphoid atrophy hyperchromatic cells in the brain, and abnormal villus in the small intestine. In the NEM+carrot juice group, the juice reversed most of the histopathological alterations normally induced by NEM. On the other hand, the sections of the liver and kidney in the NEM and NEM+carrot juice groups showed high malondialdehyde (MDA) immunostaining, and the NEM group showed low GSH immunostaining compared to the control group. The results obtained in our study confirmed that administration of carrot juice might play a role in the prevention of degenerative morphological alterations after exposure to NEM.