Antioxidant Effects of Whey Protein as a Dietary Supplement to Alleviate Cadmium-Induced Oxidative Stress in Male Wistar Rats

Mohammed Al-Zharani^1‡, Eman Almuqri ^1‡, Mohammed Mubarak^1*, Nada Aljarba², Hassan Rudayni¹, Khadija Yassen³, Saad Alkahtani³, Fahd A. Nasr¹, Amin Al-Doaiss⁴ and Mohammed S. Al-eissa¹

¹Department of Biology, College of Science, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

²Department of Biology, College of Science, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

³Department of Zoology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

⁴Department of Biology, College of Science, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia.

Corresponding Author E-mail: mohammedahmed_62@yahoo.com

The liquid whey is a byproduct produced during cheese making. Cadmium is a highly hazardous heavy metal with cumulative toxic effects. The present research work was done to clarify the possible role of whey proteins in alleviating cadmium-induced oxidative stress. The used rats were allotted equally and randomly into three experimental groups; untreated control, cadmium-exposed, and cadmium-exposed and whey protein-administered groups. The biochemical and haematological assays of rats exposed to cadmium (group 2) manifested significant alterations compared to those of untreated control animals. Concerning the biochemical serum profile, group 3 animals showed relatively increased levels of total proteins, significant increments of total thiols, glutathione, total antioxidant capacity (TAC), and catalase, and significant decrements in the levels of blood cadmium, alanine transferase (ALT), aspartate transferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), creatinine, urea, bilirubin, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and malondialdehyde (MDA) compared to the animals exposed to cadmium (group 2). Homogenates of liver and kidney tissues obtained from group 3 animals demonstrated similar results to that revealed by the serum assay. It was concluded that whey proteins as a dietary supplement can offer potential antioxidant properties that enable these supplementary proteins to alleviate cadmium-induced oxidative stress.

Antioxidative properties; Heavy metals; Natural products; Oxidative damage; Toxicity

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