Biochemical Changes Induced in Liver and Serum of Aflatoxin B1-Treated Male Wistar Rats: Preventive Effect of Picroliv

Abstract

Administration of aflatoxin B 1 to rats (2 mg/kg intraperitoneally) caused significant increase in the activities of g-glutamyl transpeptidase, 5ø-nucleotidase, acid phosphatase, acid ribonuclease as well as content of lipid peroxides in liver after six weeks. However, the activities of succinate dehydrogenase, glucose-6-phosphatase, catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione-S-transferase, glutathione peroxidase and glutathione reductase in liver were decreased. The levels of glycogen and reduced glutathione were also decreased. There were significant elevations in the levels of serum transaminases, phosphatases (acid and alkaline), dehydrogenases (sorbitol, lactate and glutamate) and bilirubin following aflatoxin B 1 administration. Picroliv (25 mg/kg/day orally for six weeks), an iridoid glycoside isolated from the roots and rhizomes of Picrorhiza kurroa, significantly prevented the biochemical changes induced by aflatoxin B 1 .Aflatoxins are a group of structurally similar difurocoumarins elaborated as secondary metabolites produced by Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. Aflatoxin B 1 acts as a hepatotoxicant, mutagen and naturally occuring hepatocarcinogen (Nixon et al. 1981;Angsubhakorn et al. 1990; Hseieh & Atkinson 1990;Dwivedi et al. 1993). Picroliv is a standardised iridoid glycoside fraction obtained from the roots and rhizomes of Picrorhiza kurroa. It contains mainly (60%) two iridoid glycosides; picroside-I and kutkoside in a ratio of 1:1.5, the remainder (40%) being a mixture of iridoid as well as cucurbitacin glycosides and some still unidentified substances. It has been reported earlier (Ansari et al. 1988) that iridoid glycoside-free extracts of Picrorhiza kurroa were found to be devoid of any activity. Picroliv exhibits pronounced hepatoprotective activity in several rat models (Dwivedi et al. 1991a(Dwivedi et al. , b, 1992a(Dwivedi et al. , b, 1993 in which the drug was administered both before and along with intoxication. However, in this communication, the drug was given from the day of toxication and continued until the animals were sacrificed. The results of the present study will give an idea about the preventive (hepatoprotective) effect of picroliv. Materials and MethodsAnimals. Adult male albino rats (110∫10 g, Wistar strain) bred in the CDRI Animal house were housed in polypropylene cages with 12∫1 hr light and dark cycles. The animals were fed a standard pellet diet (Lipton, Bombay) and had free access to water.Experimental protocol. The rats were divided into four groups each containing six animals. The animals of groups I and IV received a Author for correspondence: A. K. Srivastava, Biochemistry Division, Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, India (fax π91 522 223405, e-mail root/escdri.ren.nic.in).single intraperitoneal dose of dimethyl sulphoxide (5 ml/kg body wt.), while groups II and III animals received a single intraperitoneal dose of aflatoxin B 1 (2 mg/kg body wt.), freshly prepared in dimethyl sulphoxide (Premalatha et al. 1997). The solution o...

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Response and recovery of gibel carp from subchronic oral administration of aflatoxin B1

“…The increase in activation of SOD conferred protection against oxidative damage (Mattson et al 1995). Rastogi et al (2001) reported that SOD activity in liver of rats decreased when AFB 1 was intraperitoneally administered at a dose of 2 mg kg −1 body weight. In the present study, no statistical difference in SOD was observed between the groups fed with AFB 1 and the control after 12 weeks of AFB 1 exposure.…”

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“…The reduced feed intake may indicate protein catabolism, thereby contributing to the observed kidney injury and causing impaired glomerular filtration [19]. On the other hand, the decrease in body weight in the animals fed AFB 1 -contaminated diet alone may be due to the effects of AFB 1 on the balance between orexigenic and anorexigenic circuits that regulate the homeostatic loop of body weight regulation, leading to cachexia [20]. Another mechanism for the reduction of body weight due to AFs ingestion could be that AFs ingestion alters various digestive enzymatic activities that give rise to a malabsorption syndrome, characterized by steatorhea, hypocarotenoidemy, and to lowering of bile, pancreatic lipase, trypsin, and amylase [21].…”