Experimentally-induced hypertension in wistar rats: the role of achatina fulica derived chitosan

The scourge of hypertension has led to the continued search for alternative drug therapy that will be effective, affordable and devoid of side effects. Chitosan has been demonstrated to have the ability to scavenge free radicals generated as products of oxidative stress in various diseases.
This study investigates the effects of Achatina fulica derived Chitosan on the morphology of the kidney, cardiac muscles, liver and spleen in experimentally-induced hypertension in Wistar rats.
Twenty male Wistar rats were assigned into four groups of five rats each. Group A served as the control, group B received aqueous extract of Achatina fulica derived chitosan, Group C rats were given dexamethasone (1.67 mg/kg b. w.) while Group D rats same dose of dexamethasone in addition to 0.5 mL of aqueous extract of Achatina fulica derived chitosan. Treatments were by gavage every other dayand lasted forthree weeks.
Under ether anaesthesia, the animals were dissected; the liver, kidney, spleen and the heart were excised, fixed in 10% NBF and processed by paraffin wax embedding method. Tissue sections were produced on a rotary microtome and stained with haematoxylin and eosin.
The stained sections were examined and photographed with an Axioscope A1 microscope version 4.83 (Carl Zeiss, Germany).
Results from our study showed evidence of disruption in the microanatomy of tissues in the dexamethasone treated group of rats while Chitosan played a protective role in preventing these effects. This may be due to the ability of Chitosan to mop-up products of oxidative stress.