Research Article Mechanism of Hepatoprotective Effect of Boesenbergia rotunda in Thioacetamide-Induced Liver Damage in Rats

Copyright © 2013 Suzy M. Salama et al.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative CommonsAttribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. Researchers focused on developing traditional therapies as pharmacological medicines to treat liver cirrhosis. Objectives. Evaluating the hepatoprotective activity of Boesenbergia rotunda (BR) rhizome ethanolic extract on thioacetamide-induced liver cirrhosis in rats.Methods.Male Sprague-Dawley ratswere intraperitoneally injectedwith 200mg/kgTAA3 times/week and daily oral administration of 250mg/kg, 500mg/kg of BR extract, and 50mg/kg of the reference drug Silymarin for 8 weeks. At the end of the experiment, Masson’s trichrome staining was used to measure the degree of liver fibrosis. Hepatic antioxidant enzymes (CAT and GPx), nitrotyrosine, cytochrome (P450 2E1), matrix metalloproteinase (MMP-2 and MMP-9), tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP-1), and urinary 8-hydroxyguanosine were measured. Serum levels of transforming growth factor TGF