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Acta Biologica Hungarica

, Volume 58, Issue 4, pp 411–419 | Cite as

Vinpocetine Ameliorates Acute Hepatic Damage Caused by Administration of Carbon Tetrachloride in Rats

  • O. M. E. Abdel SalamEmail author
  • Fatma Hassan Oraby
  • Nabila S. Hassan
Open Access
Article
First Online:

Abstract

Vinpocetine is a widely used drug for the treatment of cerebrovascular and memory disorders. This study aimed to investigate the effect of vinpocetine on the acute hepatic injury caused in the rat by the administration of CCl4in vivo. Vinpocetine (2.1, 4.2, 8.4 mg/kg) or silymarin (30 mg/kg) was given once daily orally simultaneously with CCl4 and for 15 days thereafter. Liver damage was assessed by determining serum enzyme activities and hepatic histopathology. Stained sections were subjected to morphometric evaluation using computerized image analyzer. The results showed that vinpocetine administered to CCl4-treated rats decreased the elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT) by 49.3, 58.1 and 63.6%, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) by 10.5, 22.6 and 27.2% and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) by 52.5, 59.6 and 64.9%, respectively, and in a dose-dependent manner. Meanwhile, silymarin reduced elevated ALT, AST and ALP levels by 53.1, 26.9 and 66%, respectively. Histological examination of liver specimens revealed a marked reduction in liver cell necrosis in vinpocetine and silymarin-treated rats compared with vehicle-treated CCl4-treated rats. Quantitative analysis of the area of damage showed 85.3% reduction in the area of damage after silymarin and 72.2, 78.9 and 82.6% reduction after vinpocetine treatment at 2.1, 4.2, 8.4 mg/kg, respectively. It is concluded that administration of vinpocetine in a model of CCl4-induced liver injury in rats reduced liver damage. The reduction obtained by 4.2 mg/kg of vinpocetine was similar to that obtained by 30 mg/kg silymarin. Therefore, it is suggested that vinpocetine might be a good pharmacological agent in the treatment of liver disease besides its neuroprotective effects.

Keywords

Vinpocetine silymarin carbon tetrachloride rat liver injury 
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© Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest 2007

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Authors and Affiliations

  • O. M. E. Abdel Salam
    • 1
    Email author
  • Fatma Hassan Oraby
    • 2
  • Nabila S. Hassan
    • 3
  1. 1.Department of PharmacologyNational Research CentreDokki, CairoEgypt
  2. 2.Department of Medical BiochemistryNational Research CentreDokki, CairoEgypt
  3. 3.Department of PathologyNational Research CentreDokki, CairoEgypt

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