The effects of amygdalin on the morphologic structure of mouse cerebellar cortex

There are many controversial reports about the toxic effects of mygdalin as an anticancer drug. Therefore, in this paper, the effects of amygdalin on the morphologic structure of mouse cerebellar cortex were investigated. Thirty two adult male mice were randomly divided into 4 groups. In experimental group, 10, 25 and 50 mg/kg of amygdalin were injected to animals in case group for 30 days, while normal saline was injected to the animals in control group. Three days after the last injection, all the animals were anesthetized. After staining and preparation of microscopic slides of cerebellar cortex right lobe, the thickness of the molecular and granular layers with the number and sizes of purkinje cells were measured. The data were analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis, ANOVA and Dunn test. The size of Purkinje cells and thickness of molecular and granular layers of the cerebellum did not show a significant difference among the groups (P>0.05). However, the numbers of Purkinje cells showed a significant difference only in the amygdalin 10 group (9±0.34) compared with the control group (11 ± 0.34) but no significant difference was seen in amygdalin 25 (11 ± 0.44) compared with the amygdalin 10 group (9 ± 0.34) (P<0.05) The present study shows that injection of amygdalin with concentrations of 10 mg per kg may have detrimental effects on cortex of mouse cerebellum by decreasing the number of Purkinje cells.