Hepatotoxic and nephrotoxic effect of acrylamide from potato chips in mice

Abstract

Potato chips are considered to be potentially health risk products because they contain several substances with toxic potential effect upon various organs. These snacks contain acrylamide, a multi-organ carcinogenic effect substance and monosodium glutamate, used to improve the taste quality, but which has toxic effects upon several organs. In order to test the effect of potato chips diet upon different organs, two experiment were conducted. In an experiment were used adult mice aged between 4-6 months and in the other young mice of 17-20 days. They were fed for 60 days with potato chips representing 80% of the daily diet. In the first 30 days of experiment the adult mice gain weight, but at the end of the experiment they lost 10-15% from the initial weight measured at the beginning of the experiment. Histopathological modifications were noticed in internal organs of both young and adult mice. Liver presented changes in architecture, necrosis areas, hepatocytes with macrovesicular steatosis, and hydropic degeneration. Into the renal cortex, enlarged glomeruli, mesangial cell proliferation, and reduced urinary spaces were observed along with vascular congestion. Also, in the kidney were noticed renal tubules degeneration, narrow lumens and swelling epithelia. Degenerations were also present in most of intestinal tunics where villi fusion, villi atrophy, modifications in epithelia, in subepithelial connective tissue, and changes in smooth muscle fibers were observed.