Melatonin ameliorates neocortical neuronal dendritic impairment induced by toluene inhalation in the rat

The present study investigated the effects of toluene inhalation and the restorative effects of melatonin on branching and basal dendritic outgrowth of superficial pyramidal neurons in rat’s frontal, parietal, and occipital cortices. At postnatal day 21 (P21), Sprague-Dawley male rats were randomly assigned to either an air-only group or a toluene group. From P22 to P32 the animals were exposed to either clean air or toluene vapors (5000–6000 ppm) for 10 min/day. This strategy simulated common toluene abuse in humans, which consists of 15–20 rapid inhalations of highly concentrated solvent. Once the inhalation period was over (P32), toluene exposed animals were randomly reassigned to one of following experimental groups: (i) air-control/saline; (ii) toluene/saline; (iii) toluene/melatonin 0.5 mg/kg; (iv) toluene/melatonin 1.0 mg/kg; (v) toluene/melatonin 5.0 mg/kg; and (vi) toluene/melatonin 10 mg/kg. Seven days after the last inhalation (P39), all the animals were sacrificed under deep anesthesia; brains were dissected out and stained according to the Golgi-Cox-Sholl procedure. Layer II/III pyramidal neurons were morphologically analyzed by measuring their basilar dendritic length and the number of branches. The results obtained revealed that (i) toluene inhalation significantly reduced dendritic outgrowth and branching in all cortical areas studied, and (ii) intraperitoneal administration of melatonin (0.5–10 mg/kg) was able to restore the dendritic impairment induced by toluene exposure.