Effect of chitin-chitosan treatment on fatty liver in rats with a high fat diet

Abstract

The present study was designed to investigate the hepatoprotective effect of 2% chitin-chitosan mixture on high fat diet-induced fatty liver, an experimental model for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, in Wistar strain male rats. The hepatoprotective property was determined based on the following criteria: total lipid in liver, concentrations of total cholesterol, triglycerides, free fatty acids and phospholipids of serum and liver tissue; liver lipid/protein ratio; serum and tissue activities of aspartate amino transferase (AST) and alanine amino transferase (ALT); fecal fat determination and activity of pancreatic lipase. Chitin-chitosan fed animals gained less weight compared to the controls. A significant (p<0.001) reduction in the liver lipid/protein ratio was observed in chitin-chitosan mixture supplemented rats as compared to that of control animals. Also the blood and liver fat, cholesterol, triglycerides, free fatty acids and phospholipid concentrations, decreased significantly by chitin-chitosan supplementation. Serum levels of aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase showed significant (p<0.001) reduction while tissue levels exhibited a concomitant increase upon chitin-chitosan treatment. Enhanced fat excretion (p<0.001) was observed in the chitin-chitosan supplemented group. In the present study, supplementation of chitin-chitosan mixture did not induce any significant change in the activity of pancreatic lipase as compared to normal animals. This indicates that the antilipidaemic effect of chitin-chitosan mixture supplementation was mainly due to the interference in the gastrointestinal absorption of dietary fat rather than the mixture having any direct role on lipid metabolism. In conclusion, dietary supplementation of chitin-chitosan mixture can alleviate the high fat diet-induced aberrations related to lipid metabolism in fatty liver of experimental animals by their antilipidaemic property.