Abstract
The nervous system had been found to be affected by oxidative stress. Natural dietary supplements had been proved that they have antioxidants properties that may protect our bodies against the effects of free radicals. Aphanizomenon flos-aquae (AFA) are a dietary supplement with scientifically demonstrated health-improving effects especially on the nervous system. Cyclophosphamide (CP) is a widely used medication in chemotherapy and can cause oxidative stress. This study was conducted to investigate the role of AFA in preventing cyclophosphamide-induced adverse effects on the brain tissue of CP-treated rats. It is an experimental study carried out in the period from November 2020 to June 2021. It was performed on 30 albino rats with body weights of 280-320 g. The animals were divided into the following three groups. Group 1 (control group), Group 2 (CP group, received a single dose of CP at 100 mg/kg-1 BW intraperitoneally), and Group 3 (CP+ AFA, received orally extract of AFA for 30 days after CP injection). The morphological and histological structures of the brain were compared in the different groups of rats. Paraffin sections were prepared for histological, histochemical, immune-histochemical and morphometric studies. The data were statistically analyzed. Examined sections showed significant cellular injury in group 2 in comparison to the control groups. Group 3 showed marked improvements in the changes that occurred compared to the second group. These results provide evidence that AFA has a protective effect as they reduced the pathological cellular injuries in the cerebral cortex cells induced by cyclophosphamide.