EVALUATION OF DETRIMENTAL FACTORS OF DRINKING WATER AND THE EFFECT OF BLOOD GLUCOSE LEVELS AND ANXIETY STATUS: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY IN WISTAR ALBINO RATS USING ELEVATED PLUS MAZE

This study is focused on evaluating the detrimental factors of drinking water and its relation to blood glucose level and anxiety status of non-stressed experimental rats.  The study was conducted on 30 adult Wistar albino rats. The control group was treated with filtered water by reverse osmosis unit, and test 1, test 2, test 3, and test 4 groups were treated with well water from rural area 1, rural area 2, urban area 1, and pipeline water from urban area 2 respectively. Each week, body weight and fasting blood glucose (FBG) levels were measured. From the 11^th week onwards, animals’ anxiety response was measured using an elevated plus maze (EPM). On the 80^th day of the experiment, all the animals were sacrificed, and blood was collected, and the pancreas was removed for further investigations. On 9^th week of the experiment, FBG level became 83 ± 3.89 mg/dL, 94.6 ± 10.05 mg/dL, 79.8 ± 2.54 mg/dL, 79.5 ± 4.51 mg/dL, 107 ± 6.14 mg/dL for control, test 1, test 2, test 3 and test 4 groups respectively. The anxiety status of the control group was expressed mean and standard error it was 205 ± 22.64 seconds in the closed arm of EPM. The control group showed better responses in the FBG level and EPM test. The study revealed that there is a significant difference between the anxiety status of the study groups during the experimental period.