Metformin protects against thioacetamide induced liver injury in rats

Abstract

Potent heptatotoxic chemicals such as carbon tetrachloride and thioacetamide (TAA) are used to evaluate hepatoprotective agents. Here we sought to investigate the potential protective effect of the antidiabetic and antioxidant drug, metformin against liver injury induced by TAA. Model group rats received several injections of TAA (200 mg/kg) before being sacrificed after 10 weeks and the protective group started the treatment two weeks prior to TAA injections and continued receiving both agents, metformin and TAA until the end of the experiment, week 10. Harvested liver tissues were examined using light microscopy and liver homogenates were assayed for oxidative and anti-oxidative stress markers that are known to be modulated in liver injury. Profound damage in the hepatic tissue of the model group such as liver fibrosis and destruction of hepatic architectures were revealed, which were protected by metformin comparable to the control group. TAA augmented the oxidative stress biomarker, malondialdehyde (MDA) and ameliorated the antioxidant superoxide dismutase (SOD), which were significantly (p<0.05) protected by metformin treatment. These results indicate that metformin effectively protects against TAA-induced hepatotoxicity in a rat model.