High fat diet aggravates arsenic induced oxidative stress in rat heart and liver Mousumi Dutta a,c , Debosree Ghosh a , Arnab Kumar Ghosh a , Gargi Bose a , Aindrila Chattopadhyay c , Smita Rudra a , Monalisa Dey a , Arkita Bandyopadhyay a , Sanjib K. Pattari d , Sanjaya Mallick e , Debasish Bandyopadhyay a,b,⇑ a Oxidative Stress and Free Radical Biology Laboratory, Department of Physiology, University of Calcutta, University College of Science and Technology, 92, APC Road, Kolkata 700 009, India b Centre with Potential for Excellence in Particular Area (CPEPA), University of Calcutta, University College of Science and Technology, 92, APC Road, Kolkata 700 009, India c Department of Physiology, Vidyasagar College, Kolkata 700 006, India d RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences, 124, Mukundapur, E.M. Bypass, Kolkata 700 099, India e Acharya Prafulla Chandra Sikhsha Prangan, University of Calcutta, Salt Lake Campus, JD-2, Sector-III, Salt Lake City, Kolkata 700 098, India article info Article history: Received 10 December 2013 Accepted 28 January 2014 Available online 5 February 2014 Keywords: Arsenic Oxidative stress High fat diet Heart damage Liver damage abstract Arsenic is a well known global groundwater contaminant. Exposure of human body to arsenic causes var- ious hazardous effects via oxidative stress. Nutrition is an important susceptible factor which can affect arsenic toxicity by several plausible mechanisms. Development of modern civilization led to alteration in the lifestyle as well as food habits of the people both in urban and rural areas which led to increased use of junk food containing high level of fat. The present study was aimed at investigating the effect of high fat diet on heart and liver tissues of rats when they were co-treated with arsenic. This study was estab- lished by elucidating heart weight to body weight ratio as well as analysis of the various functional mark- ers, oxidative stress biomarkers and also the activity of the antioxidant enzymes. Histological analysis confirmed the biochemical investigations. From this study it can be concluded that high fat diet increased arsenic induced oxidative stress. Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction It has become evident that increasing human activities have mod- ified the global cycle of heavy metals and metalloids, including the toxic non-essential elements like arsenic (As) (Clarkson, 1995). Among these metals, arsenic exhibits a complex metabolism and is possibly the most abundant and potential carcinogen (EI-Demerdash et al., 2009). Arsenic is present in nature in stable form as As 5+ spe- cies, and As 3+ species. Exposure of animals and humans to different metal components through contaminated drinking water can result in a wide range of adverse clinical conditions. Arsenic pollution in the environment is becoming a major concern for environmental and occupational health, owing to its widespread toxic and multidimensional effects on humans and aquatic life and plants through polluted ground water and food chains (Chowdhury et al., 2000). Groundwater con- tamination with arsenic in West Bengal, India, is reported to be the largest arsenic calamity in the world (Chowdhury et al., 2000). Arsenic toxicity involves oxidative damage that plays a vital role for biochemical alteration (Nandi et al., 2006). Decreased level of antioxidants and increased levels of oxidation products in blood were reported in human population exposed to arsenic (Wu et al., 2001). Various studies reported that arsenic could participate in the cellular oxidation–reduction reactions resulting in the for- mation of excess reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as superoxide anion (O ÅÀ 2 ) and free radicals such as hydroxyl radical (OH Å ) via a chain reaction (Valko et al., 2005). The potential role of oxidative stress in the injury associated with arsenic poisoning suggests that antioxidants may enhance the efficacy of treatment protocols de- signed to mitigate arsenic induced toxicity. In particular, arsenic induces oxidative DNA damage and lipid peroxidation (Pineda- Zavaleta et al., 2004). In contrast to the extensive fetal exposure in women exposed to arsenic during pregnancy, the breast-fed in- fant is protected against arsenic exposure because the excretion of arsenic in breast milk is limited (Bhattacharya et al., 2012). There is wide variation in susceptibility to arsenic-induced toxicity, and http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fct.2014.01.050 0278-6915/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author at: Oxidative Stress and Free Radical Biology Laboratory, Department of Physiology, University of Calcutta, University College of Science and Technology, 92, APC Road, Kolkata 700 009, India. Tel.: +91 9433072066. E-mail address: debasish63@gmail.com (D. Bandyopadhyay). Food and Chemical Toxicology 66 (2014) 262–277 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Food and Chemical Toxicology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodchemtox