Materials and Methods: Twenty-five ICR mice and 20 BALB/C mice were used where five animals as control and the rest were randomly divided into four time points at 5, 10, 24 and 48 hours post-dosing (hpd). They were induced with 500 mg/kg APAP intraperitoneally. Liver sections were processed for hematoxylin-eosin staining and histopathological changes were scored based on grading methods.
Results: Intense centrilobular damage was observed as early as 5 hpd in BALB/C as compared to ICR mice, which was observed at 10 hpd. The difference of liver injury between ICR and BALB/C mice is due to dissimilarity in the genetic line-up that related to different elimination pathways of APAP toxicity. However, at 24 hpd, the damage was markedly subsided and liver regeneration had taken place for both ICR and BALB/C groups with evidence of mitotic figures. This study showed that normal liver architecture was restored after the clearance of toxic insult.
Conclusion: AILI was exhibited earlier in BALB/C than ICR mice but both underwent liver recovery at later time points.
Methods: The control group was administered with phosphate buffer solution (PBS) while the other two groups received PCM alone (1000 mg/kg) and PCM + 25 mg/kg ZER, respectively, at 0 h and 4 h after PCM injection. After 24 h, the blood and liver were collected for differential white blood cell count, liver histological observation and biochemical analysis including alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and total protein concentration in serum and liver.
Results: Treatment with ZER was found to significantly reduce ALT (P = 0.041), AST (P = 0.044) and total hepatic protein (P = 0.045) in comparison to PCM-induced rats. Rats treated with ZER exhibited the normal structure of hepatocytes with no vacuolisation or necrosis and showed significantly reduced neutrophil count (P = 0.037). This finding suggests its ability to suppress the inflammatory processes caused by PCM overdosage and decrease the hepatocytes tendency to go through necrotic processes.
Conclusion: ZER possessed protective activity against PCM-induced acute hepatotoxicity in a rat model.