Vol. 11, Special Issue 5 (2022)

Author(s):
Mathew Jacob, S Suja Rani, R Shankar, Archana Raj and S Sujith

Abstract:
The animal models for fatty liver disease are of utmost significance, particularly for the effective evaluation of the lipotropic activity of various agents. It can be induced by multiple methods, amongst which, CCl₄ treatment can effectively induce hepatic steatosis, although the diverse dose and duration of CCl₄ administration may engender various degrees of hepatic damage ranging from mild degeneration to fibrosis and/or necrosis. Thus, it necessitates an experiment-based approach for selecting optimal dosage of CCl₄ for the rapid and reproducible induction of fatty liver in rats with no overlapping of hepatic necrosis or fibrosis. Accordingly, 30 male albino Wistar rats were randomly allocated to five groups; Group I was injected with olive oil at 1.0 ml/kg body weight subcutaneously (SC) and served as vehicle control, while Groups II to V were administered SC with CCl₄ mixed with olive oil (1:1) at dose levels of 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 ml per kg body weight respectively for four consecutive days. The animals were sacrificed after 72 hours of the last dose and the hepatic as well as serum lipid levels were estimated. Serum biomarkers of hepatic function and histopathology of liver were also assessed at the end of experiment. Amongst the CCl₄ treated groups, CCl₄ at 1.0 ml per kg dose level has effectively elevated the hepatic and serum triglyceride and cholesterol levels with a moderate degree of centrilobular hepatic fatty infiltration, even in the absence of any advanced degree of hepatic necrosis and fibrosis. Besides, it significantly augmented the levels of serum ALT, AST and ALP, thereby indicating 1.0 ml/kg to be the optimal dosage of CCl₄ for effective induction of fatty liver in male albino Wistar rats.