ABSTRACT
High fat diet induces excessive body fat storing by increasing mass of adipose tissue which leads to lipid profileabnormalities. Artichoke is a plant that traditionally used for treatment of various diseases. This research aimed to study therole of supplementing low or high doses of water extract of artichoke leaves in rats fed HFD. In this regard, four rat groupswere established as follows: control group, high fat diet group, Low dose artichoke+ HFD group (600 mg /kg b.w/day) afterthree weeks following obesity induction, and high dose artichoke +HFD group (1500 mg /kg b.w /day). Body weight gain,serum lipid parameters, liver enzymes, antioxidant status, lipoprotein lipase gene expression and histology of adipose tissueand liver were examined. Results showed that HFD increased body weight, lipid parameters and causes abnormal liverenzyme levels along with disturbance of antioxidant status, fat droplets accumulation and enlargement of adipose tissues.These parameters were counteracted by supplementing either low or high dose of artichoke extract, showing the mitigatingeffect of artichoke against HFD side effects. It was revealed that the hypolipodemic and hepatoprotective effects were moreobservable in low dose of extract than that of high dose.