Unstable social situation and food inequality can promote accumulation of lipofuscin and induced apoptosis in hepatocytes

Introduction: Based on both animal and human studies, inequality and social injustice haveadverse effects on individual and community health. However, it is not yet known whether socialinstability and food inequality can cause the premature aging hepatocytes death in young people. Toaddress this question, the effects of food intake inequality with or without unstable social statuswere evaluated and histopathological changes in hepatocytes and aging process investigated as well.Material and Methods: Forty eight Newzeland white male rabbits were divided into six groups anddifferent social situations were applied to some groups during eight weeks. After the end of theperiod of the experiment, lipofuscin accumulation and apoptosis as two main markers of agingwere studied by long Zeihl Nelseen staining and the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTPnike end labeling (TUNEL reaction) of the hepatocytes respectively. Serum cortisol level was alsomeasured.Results: The simultaneous application of the mentioned situations (i.e. food restriction, socialinequality and changed cage-mate), caused significant change in lipofuscin accumulation in thehepatocytes in comparison with the control group (p<0.001). In addition, application of instability andisolation environment produced significant changes in hepatocytes apoptosis (p<0.05).Conclusion: Accumulation of two main markers of aging increased in hepatocytes and wasaccelerated in the groups with unstable social status.