Abstract
Cadmium (Cd) is one of the most toxic and carcinogenic heavy metals in industrial discharges that cause considerable hazards to humans. Curcumin and melatonin are one of the most studied biometabolites known as scrounger of free radicals. Further, selenium is an essential dietary trace element having a protective role as an antioxidant. In this study, we explored the antioxidants effect of selenium, and bioactive molecules melatonin and curcumin over cadmium induced oxidative stress (OS) and some blood indices damages in adult Swiss strain male mice. The animals were treated with selenium, melatonin and curcumin and all pre-treated animals were administered with Cd (10 mg/kg) s.c. for three weeks. The nonenzymatic OS indices viz. lipid peroxides in the form of thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) and reduced total glutathione (GSH), and enzymatic OS indices, such as catalase (CAT), glutathione S-transferase (GST) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were estimated together with certain parameters of blood. Cd alone induced a significant increase in TBARS and a significant decrease in GSH, GST, CAT and SOD levels in all tissues. Furthermore, the blood parameters viz. counts of red and white blood cells, platelets, hemoglobin and packed cell volume were also depleted due to Cd exposure. The results indicated that though selenium, melatonin and curcumin act as natural antioxidants, the trace element selenium however, proved to be the best antioxidant comparatively.