Male Sprague-Dawley rats (weighing 200-250 g, 10-12 weeks old) were purchased from the Medical Experimental Research and Application Center, Atatürk University (Erzurum, Turkey). The Atatürk University Ethical Committee approved the experimental protocol for our experiment (approval no: 2020/132).
The rats were housed under standard laboratory conditions (24 ± 1 °C, 45 ± 5% humidity, and 12-h light/dark cycle). Rats had access to a commercial pellet diet (Bayramoglu Feed and Flour Industry Trade A. C. Erzurum) and water ad libitum throughout the whole study. After 1 week of acclimatization, animals were grouped into five experimental groups (control, Cd, Morin100 + Cd, Morin200 + Cd, and Morin200) with ten rats each following the design below: Control: One milliliter of distilled water was orally given to each rat for 5 consecutive days. Cd: Rats were intraperitoneally injected (i.p.) with Cd (6.5 mg/kg) [26] for 5 consecutive days. Morin100 + Cd: Morin (100 mg/kg) was orally administered to each rat [22] followed by Cd (6.5 mg/kg, i.p.) injection after 1 h of Morin administration for 5 consecutive days. Morin200 + Cd: Morin (200 mg/kg) was orally administered to each rat [22] followed by Cd (6.5 mg/kg, i.p.) injection after 1 h of Morin administration for 5 consecutive days. Morin200: Morin (200 mg/kg) was orally administered to each rat for 5 consecutive days.
On the sixth day of the experiment, live animals were weighed and then euthanized by mild sevoflurane anesthesia, and intracardiac blood samples were collected. All rats were sacrificed immediately after blood sampling by decapitation, and abdominal laparotomy was performed to obtain the liver. After weighing, each liver was divided into two parts: the 1st was snap frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at -80 °C to be used for biochemical and gene expression studies, and the 2nd was immediately flushed with saline and then taken into 10% formaldehyde for histopathological and immunofluorescent examinations.
The rats were housed under standard laboratory conditions (24 ± 1 °C, 45 ± 5% humidity, and 12-h light/dark cycle). Rats had access to a commercial pellet diet (Bayramoglu Feed and Flour Industry Trade A. C. Erzurum) and water ad libitum throughout the whole study. After 1 week of acclimatization, animals were grouped into five experimental groups (control, Cd, Morin100 + Cd, Morin200 + Cd, and Morin200) with ten rats each following the design below: Control: One milliliter of distilled water was orally given to each rat for 5 consecutive days. Cd: Rats were intraperitoneally injected (i.p.) with Cd (6.5 mg/kg) [26] for 5 consecutive days. Morin100 + Cd: Morin (100 mg/kg) was orally administered to each rat [22] followed by Cd (6.5 mg/kg, i.p.) injection after 1 h of Morin administration for 5 consecutive days. Morin200 + Cd: Morin (200 mg/kg) was orally administered to each rat [22] followed by Cd (6.5 mg/kg, i.p.) injection after 1 h of Morin administration for 5 consecutive days. Morin200: Morin (200 mg/kg) was orally administered to each rat for 5 consecutive days.
On the sixth day of the experiment, live animals were weighed and then euthanized by mild sevoflurane anesthesia, and intracardiac blood samples were collected. All rats were sacrificed immediately after blood sampling by decapitation, and abdominal laparotomy was performed to obtain the liver. After weighing, each liver was divided into two parts: the 1st was snap frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at -80 °C to be used for biochemical and gene expression studies, and the 2nd was immediately flushed with saline and then taken into 10% formaldehyde for histopathological and immunofluorescent examinations.
