Prophylactic effects of thymoquinone against carbon tetrachloride-induced hepatic damage in Sprague-Dawley rats

Abstract

This study is conducted to investigate the prophylactic effect of thymoquinone (TQ), the major active ingredient of Nigella sativa seeds, against carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced hepatic damage in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. Forty rats were divided into four even groups. The first group served as control. The second, third and fourth groups received CCl4, CCl4 and TQ, and TQ only, respectively for 5 weeks. CCl4 (2 ml/kg b.w.) was given orally by gastric tube twice a week on Sunday and Thursday. TQ (20 mg/kg b.w.) was given daily in corn oil by gastric tube. At the end of the experiment, rats were sacrificed, and blood samples and liver specimens were obtained for biochemical analysis and morphological examination, respectively. Control and TQ-treated rats showed normal serum activity for alanine (ALT) and aspartate (AST) aminotransferases, and normal liver histology. Treatment of rats with CCl4 significantly increased serum activity of ALT and AST aminotransferases compared to control rats. Histopathologically, livers from CCl4-treated rats showed dilatation of blood sinusoids and portal blood vessels, Kupffer cell activation, vacuolar degeneration of hepatocytes, focal areas of necrosis and mild hepatic fibrosis. Using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), CCl4 caused clear lesions in the liver including dilatation of endoplasmic reticula, increased extracellular matrix and formation of abundant fatty globules and numerous autophagosomes in hepatocytes. On the other hand, co-administration of TQ with CCl4 significantly decreased serum ALT and AST activities, and attenuated most of CCl4-induced hepatic pathological changes. The present study indicates that TQ has the potential to attenuate CCl4-induced hepatic damage in SD rats.

An updated knowledge of Black seed (Nigella sativa Linn.): Review of phytochemical constituents and pharmacological properties

“…There have been many studies to find out the chemical nature of N. sativa and it was found that the medicinal value of N. sativa is mainly due to the presence of its quinone constituent which is also known as thymoquinone (TQ) ( Sahak et al, 2016 ). TQ is the main constituent of the volatile oil and has a variety of pharmacological properties such as hepatoprotective ( Hassanein et al, 2016 ; Laskar et al, 2016 ; Saheb et al, 2016 ), anti-inflammatory ( Abd-Elbaset et al, 2017 ; Shaarani et al, 2017 ), antibacterial ( Goel and Mishra, 2018 ), antioxidant ( Erol et al, 2017 ), fungicidal ( Almshawit and Macreadie, 2017 ), nephroprotective ( Kotb et al, 2018 ) and anticancer ( Almoyad, 2018 ; Majdalawieh et al, 2017 ; Shaarani et al, 2017 ). There is also literature showing evidence for the molecular mechanism of this molecule ( Gholamnezhad et al, 2016 ).…”

Novel drug therapy of acute hepatic failure induced in rats by a combination of tadalafil and Lepidium sativum

“…induced obvious hepatic necrosis, inflammation, fatty change, and fibrosis in rats after 12 weeks [ 75 ]. Furthermore, Hassanein, Al-Emam [ 76 ] noted that there were no major histological abnormalities in our investigation, including centrilobular necrosis and visible fatty alterations, due to the oral route and short period of CCL 4 administration. With vacuolar disintegration of the hepatocytes, the liver tissues improved in the CCL 4 and L. sativum -treated groups.…”

Efficiency of the leaves and fruits of Aegle marmelos methanol extract (L.) Correa and their relative hepatotoxicity induced by CCL4 and identification of their active constituents by using LC/MS/MS

“…CCl 4 treatment caused significant decrease in cell viability and the toxin treatment initiated lipid peroxidation (LPO), promoted leakage of enzymes like AST and ALT [38]. Regarding serum ALP enzyme activity, significant increase in its activity in CCl 4 -intoxicated mice was recorded as compared to control group [39].…”