Exploring the Impacts of Glyphosate on Liver Health: An Advanced Approach with Digital Image Processing

Abstract

Introduction: Glyphosate (N-phosphonomethyl-glycine) is a non-selective, systemic herbicide widely used in crops. Its extensive use aims to increase productivity, making the process more profitable. Exposure to the herbicide causes damage to flora and fauna and may be a potential harmful agent to the hepatic epithelium, causing pathological changes. Study Model: Experimental study. Objective: To analyze the effects of chronic oral and inhalatory exposure to different concentrations of the herbicide glyphosate on the hepatic tissue of rats, using digital image processing. A total of 112 Wistar rats were used for the research, distributed into 2 exposure groups (inhalational and oral) with 14 rats in each cage. The inhalational exposure group received daily nebulization, while the oral exposure group received food nebulized with glyphosate. In both groups, we used three concentrations of the herbicide, characterized as high, medium, and low concentrations. After 180 days of the experiment, the animals were euthanized. Microscope images were taken, hepatic nuclei were selected and delineated, and a database was created that enabled the digital processing analysis of 200,000 hepatocytes. Results: It was observed that both the routes of exposure and the dosages exert predominant changes, suggestive of hepatic damage with a value of (p<0.05). Conclusion: Chronic inhalatory exposure to glyphosate presents a high potential for harm to hepatic cells.