[Study of anatomical, histological and biochemical changes of liver in the mice exposed to phenol]

ABSTRACT

Liver is one of the most important body's organs which metabolize many of substances such as phenol. This study was done to investigate the probable effects of phenol administration on the histo-anatomical structure and also biochemical functions of the liver. In this experimental study, eighty male Balb/C mice were selected and randomly divided into one control group and three experimental groups. Distilled water was administered through gavage method on the control group and experimental groups received 80, 180 and 320 mg/kg/day of phenol, respectively, for one month. At the end of the experiment, the animals were euthanized by chloroform and the liver was removed from body. Then, absolute and relative weights of liver were recorded. Hepatic tissue samples were taken and histological changes were examined using optical microscopy. Blood samples were also collected and after separating the sera, liver enzyme activities were analyses. Administrating phenol caused significant elevation in absolute and relative liver weights. Also, phenol treatment induced significant increase of hepatocyte diameter, hepatocyte's nuclear diameter and hepatic sinusoid size [P<0.05]. Furthermore, phenol treated animals had leukocyte infiltration, necrosis, congestion and bile duct hyperplasia in comparison with the control group. Phenol treatment caused significant elevation in the serum levels of AST, ALT and ALP [P<0.05]. The present study showed that exposing to the different concentrations of phenol can cause severe damages in the mice's liver