European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

HYPOLIPIDEMIC ACTION OF CHITOSAN CORRELATES WITH ITS ANTIOXIDANT EFFECT AGAINST THIOACETAMIDE TOXICITY IN MALE ALBINO RATS

Shereen M. M. Yahya, Rokaya H. Shalaby, Fathia A. Mannaa, Noura R. Mohamed, Shereen H. B. Elwakeel* and Khaled G. Abdel-Wahhab

ABSTRACT

Liver diseases represent a major health problem globally as its clearance function or elimination of toxins causes’ tissue damage. Chitosan is a safe natural constituent of bacteria and crustaceans exoskeleton. Thioacetamide (TAA) is one of the best well established liver toxic agent. The present study was conducted to evaluate the correlation between the hypolipidemic effect and the anti-oxidant activity of chitosan in TAA-induced toxicity in male Wistar rats. Fifty rats were divided into 5 groups and treated as follow; group1: served as control; group2 was injected with TAA (300 mg/Kg b.wt once); group 3 received 5% chitosan in diet for 14 days; group 4 fed 5% chitosan-diet for 14 days before TAA-injection; group 5 intoxicated with TAA prior to fed on 5% chitosan- diet for 14 days. TAA group showed deteriorated serum lipid profile pattern, decreased liver glutathione level and increased hepatic nitric oxide (NO) and lipid peroxidation (MDA) levels. However, feeding of rats on 5% chitosan-supplemented dies 14 days before or after TAA-intoxication showed ameliorated lipid profile levels close to normal levels, significantly increased hepatic glutathione level and significantly reduced liver NO and MDA levels. The correlation and linear regression analyses revealed a negative correlation among glutathione level and serum cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and triglycerides levels while NO was positively correlated with these markers. These results highlighted that hypolipidemic action of chitosan could be mediated different mechanisms, mainly by its anti-oxidant property.

Keywords: Thioacetamide; liver, chitosan; lipids; oxidative stress; rats.