Hepatoprotective effect of melatonin on chronically ethanolª²treated mice

    LIU Weiª²Hui, CAI Chuan, ZHOU Yang, LIU Fangª²E, TIAN Shaoª²Hua

    Team 12, Cadet Brigade, Center of Medical Experiment, School of Basic Medicine, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi¬ðan 710033, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To investigate the changes of alanine aminotransferase(ALT), aspartate aminotransferase(AST), malondialdehyde (MDA) and pathological lesions of mice livers,which were caused by chronic alcohol drinking, and the protective effect of melatonin(MT) against ethanolª²induced chronic hepatotoxicity. METHODS: Fortyª²eight mice were randomly divided into 4 groups: control group(A), alcohol group (B), alcohol +high dosage MT group(C), and alcohol+low dosage MT group(D). 60 mL/L alcohol was used to induce hepatotoxicity in these mice. MT was injected at 20 and 5 mg/kg immediately after alcohol drinking in group C and group D respectively. The activities of ALT, AST and the levels of MDA in liver homogenate were detected. And pathological lesion in liver tissue was evaluated. RESULTS: MT inhibited the increasing tread of MDA in liver homogenate and lowered the levels of ALT and AST in chronically ethanolª²treated mice. MDA: the content in group D and C was lower than that of group B (P<0.05); ALT: the activity in group D was lower than that of group B (P<0.01), and the activity in group C was lower than that of group D (P<0.01); AST: the activity in group D was lower than that of group B (P<0.01); the activity in group C was lower than that of group D (P<0.01). And in morphology MT could greatly prevent the lesions of chronically ethanolª²treated mice livers. Total pathological score: the score of group D was much lower than that of group B (P<0.01); the score of group C was greatly lower than that of group D (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: MT indeed hasa protective effect on chronic ethanolª²induced mice livers, which is positively associated with MT dosage. ......