Publication Date
2024
Document Type
Thesis
Committee Members
Shannon Romer, Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Patrick Sonner, Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); David Ladle, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Abstract
Organophosphates are known neurotoxicants; however, they remain in use as flame retardants and are heavily used as pesticides. Malathion is an organophosphate insecticide commonly used in the United States since 1956. Despite known neurobehavioral impacts, there is little data available as to how repeated, occupational like, malathion exposures impact locomotion and the structure of motoneurons. We hypothesized that low-level repeated exposure to malathion would result in motor function deficits with anatomical alterations in the alpha-motoneurons (MN) consistent with neurodegeneration. Also, we hypothesized that galantamine would be neuroprotective against the effects of malathion. To test our hypothesis, we exposed male and female adult Sprague Dawley rats to 50 mg of malathion/kg body weight via subcutaneous injections once daily for 5 days a week for 4 weeks total. Locomotor behavior was assessed at approximately 1- and 4-weeks following exposure. Our results suggest that the effects of repeated low-level exposure to malathion can affect motor function differentially in male and female rats.
Page Count
115
Department or Program
Department of Neuroscience, Cell Biology, and Physiology
Year Degree Awarded
2024
Copyright
Copyright 2024, some rights reserved. My ETD may be copied and distributed only for non-commercial purposes and may not be modified. All use must give me credit as the original author.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
ORCID ID
0009-0007-9262-5700
