Mercury is a highly toxic heavy metal, which can be found in organic and inorganic elemental forms in the environment. The inorganic mercury has lower liposolubility and consequently, lower absorption in the body, and lower passage through the blood brain barrier. For this reason, exposure models using inorganic mercury in rats to evaluate its effects in the central nervous system are rare, mainly in adults. Therefore, we investigate the potential of low concentration of mercury chloride (HgCl2), in a chronic exposure model to promote motor changes associated to variables in the oxidative balance, cellular cytotoxicity and apoptosis in the motor cortex of adult rats. For this purpose, rats were exposed for 45 days to a dose of 0.375 mg/kg/day. After this period, the animals were submitted to motor evaluation and then were collected for measurement of total deposited mercury in neural parenquima, assessment and quantification of cellular cytotoxicity and apoptosis and evaluation of the oxidative balance. Furthermore, animals were perfused to evaluate the density of mature neurons and astrocytes of the motor cortex. It was observed that chronic exposure to inorganic mercury decreased balance and fine motor coordination. In addition, we found that this exposition model led to cytotoxicity and cell death by apoptosis, formation of deposits of mercury and oxidative stress evidenced by the increase of lipoperoxidation and the concentration of nitrites and decrease in total antioxidant capacity. Thus, our results provide evidence that a exposition to inorganic mercury, even before his lower capacity to cross the biology barriers, It is still capable to inducing motor changes associated to cell death and apoptosis and oxidative stress in the motor cortex of the adult rats.
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