Histological Studies of the Effects of Monosodium Glutamate on the Medial Geniculate Body of Adult Wistar Rats

Histological effects of Monosodium glutamate (MSG) commonly used as food additive on the medial geniculate body (MGB) of adult wistar rats were carefully studied. The rats of both sexes (n=24), average weight of 185g were randomly assigned into two treatments (n=16) and control (n=8) groups. The rats in the treatment groups received 3g and 6g of MSG thoroughly mixed with their feeds for fourteen days, while the control rats received equal amounts of feeds without MSG added. The rats were fed with grower's mash purchased from Edo Feeds and Flour Mill Ltd, Ewu, Edo State and were given water liberally. The rats were sacrificed on day fifteen of the experiment. The medial geniculate body was carefully dissected out and quickly fixed in 10% formal saline for routine histological study after H&E method. The histological findings after H&E methods indicated that the treated sections of the medial geniculate body showed some cellular degenerative changes, autophagic vacuoles with some vacuolations appearing in the stroma, and some degree of neuronal hypertrophy when compared to the control sections. These findings indicate that MSG consumption may have a deleterious effect on the neurons of the medial geniculate body (MGB). MSG may probably have adverse effects on the auditory sensibilities by its deleterious effects on the nerve cells of the MGB of adult wistar rats. It is recommended that further studies aimed at corroborating these observations be carried out.