Cadmium (Cd) is a notorious environmental pollutant known for its wide range of toxicities to organisms. Thus, the present study is designed to examine whether melatonin, a potent antioxidant, protects against Cd-induced oxidative damage in the heart, liver and kidney of rats. Cd treatment at a dose of 0.44 mg/kg for 15 days caused severe damage in all these organs. These included significantly increased activities of SGPT, SGOT, lactate dehydrogenase- 1 and 5 and ALP and levels of total lactate, creatinine, lipid peroxidation, protein carbonyl content and reduced glutathione while the activities of superoxide dismutases, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase and glutathione-S-transferase along with mitochondrial pyruvate dehydrogenase, isocitrate dehydrogenase, α-keto glutarate dehydrogenase, succinate dehydrogenase, NADH-cytochrome-c-oxidoreductase and cytochrome-c-oxidase were significantly reduced by Cd. However, if melatonin was given orally 30 min before Cd injection, all these alterations induced by Cd were significantly preserved by melatonin. Histological observations also demonstrated that Cd exposure caused cellular lesions, promoting necrotic or apoptotic changes. Notably, all these changes were significantly protected by melatonin. The results suggest that melatonin is a beneficial molecule to ameliorate Cd-induced oxidative damage in the heart, liver and kidney tissues of rats with its powerful antioxidant capacity, heavy metal chelating activity and competition of binding sites with Cd to the GSH and catalase.
