Hepatocellular Recovery of Chronic Paraquat Induced Liver Toxicity in Vitamin E and C Treated Male Wistar Rats

Abstract

Paraquat is an organic compound also known as methyl viologen, a chemical herbicide or weed killer with highly toxic effect on ingestion or exposure. Vitamin E and C are powerful antioxidants that act as initial responder against oxygen reactive species called free radicals which attack and destroy the tissues. The aim of this study was to determine a short term therapeutic effect of vitamin E and C combination on liver enzymes parameters of paraquat induced liver toxicity in male albino rats. 200 male albino rats were used for the study. The 200 rats were divided into four main groups (A, B, C, D) consisting of 50 rats in each group. The Groups were further divided into two subgroups having 25 rats in each subgroup. “A” group was not induced with paraquat while “B”, ‘C” and “D” groups were induced with increasing dose of 0.02g, 0.04g and 0.06g of paraquat respectively. “A” group had two subgroups; “Ao” and “AVEC” which represented the sub-group not treated with Vit E and the subgroup treated with Vit E (500mg) respectively. This also applied to group “B”, “C” and “D” paraquat was administered every forth night followed by treatment with the vitamins for one month. Blood samples were collected and analysed for liver function (SGOT, SGPT, ALT And GGT). There was a significant increase in the level of the liver enzymes among the “Ao”, “Bo”, “Co” and “Do”, p-value<0.05 and also among the “AVEC”, “BVEC”, “CVEC” and “DVEC”, p-value<0.05. The result also showed that there were significant differences in intra-group comparison in all the liver enzyme parameters, p-value<0.05 while there was no significant difference among the AO and AVEC subgroups for all parameters. This study has shown that vitamin E and C combination has a therapeutic effect in male albino rats on one month of weekly treatment. Therefore, a weekly treatment with Vit E and C may treat liver disease toxicity associated with paraquat toxicity in rats.