THE BROKEN SHIELD: INTERPRETING WISTAR RATS' ENDOGENOUS ANTIOXIDANT LINES OF DEFENSE COLLAPSE AND METABOLIC HOMEOSTASIS UNDER INCREASING PLANT PHENOLIC STRESS

Background: Secondary metabolites in plants serve as defensive evolutionary weapons, however their systemic and organ-specific toxicological effects on mammalian physiology are still unknown. Examining the cellular defenses and cascading physiological changes in Wistar rats (Rattus norvegicus) given escalating oral dosages of a plant phenolic extract was the aim of this study.
Methods: The extract (0, 100, 250, 500, and 1000 mg/kg body weight) was given orally to 50 healthy male rats in five groups (n = 10 groups) for 28 days in a row. Continuous systemic interactions were mapped using derived homeostatic indicators and multivariate Pearson correlation matrices.
Results: The multi-group analysis showed that the host's frontline defenses were in a severe state of biological depletion. The Relative Cellular Oxidative Stress Index and Superoxide Dismutase were found to have a crucial negative connection (r = -0.94163, p < 0.001), indicating an active-site depletion of defensive enzymes. Acute lipid peroxidation caused major structural changes on a macroscopic level, as evidenced by a strong positive association between the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and the liver Organosomatic Index (r = 0.919898, p < 0.001). The positive correlation between the Metabolic Homeostasis Coefficient and MDA (r = 0.97192, p < 0.001) indicates that systematic oxidative trauma caused a significant neuroendocrine breakdown that resulted in severe stress-induced hyperglycemia.
Conclusion: The results show that cumulative dosages of plant defensive chemicals systematically destroy endogenous antioxidant defense lines, causing hepatomegaly, severe bioenergetic destabilization, and cell membrane collapse.