Vol. 2, Issue 5, Part I (2016)

Abstract
The heavy metal, cadmium (Cd) is known to be teratogenic leading to malformations in a number of vertebrate systems (Järup and Åkesson, 2009; Adams et al., 2011; Nordberg et al., 2009; Jin et al., 2016) ^[1-4]. This effect has been attributed to the oxidative stress induced by cadmium (Cuypers et al., 2010) ^[6]. The rationale behind this study was to evaluate Cd induced damage on the morphological and biochemical development of chick embryos and a subsequent rescue of the same using crude green tea extract. Hence, varying concentrations of cadmium chloride were injected in chick embryos on day zero post fertilization (dpf) and then observed for mortality, morphological abnormalities and marker enzymes of oxidative stress. The lowest observed effect level (LOEL) of Cd was found to be 25mM. Blood clots, hemorrhage, microphthalmia, exencephaly, micromelia and arrested development were observed in Cd treated embryos. Activity of oxidative stress marker Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) showed a significant decrease in Cd treated embryos, indicating hepatotoxicity. A significant decrease in total protein concentrations was also observed. Protein profiles showed additional protein bands in treated embryos, indicating cadmium induced changes in protein expression. To investigate possible green tea reversal of toxic effects of cadmium, the embryos were treated with Cd and green tea extracts simultaneously. Rigid, brown masses, not seen in any of the controls, were observed. These brown masses showed a significant increase in total protein concentrations and ALT levels. Embryos treated with only green tea extract, however, showed normal embryonic development and normal levels of proteins and ALT. Thus, the results indicate that green tea was unable to rescue the embryo from the toxic effects of cadmium. We propose that cadmium and green tea play a synergistic role in activating antioxidants which proves detrimental for normal growth and development.