Light and electron microscopic study on the hepatoprotective effect of silymarin on potentially fatty infiltrated liver during pregnancy in albino rats

ABSTRACT

Preservation of the mother health and fetal life during pregnancy is the major task of obstetricians. Though pregnancy is a great burden over the vital organs, it influences and influenced by the functions of these organs. Most common forms of liver changes during pregnancy are reversible, but some serious illness as fatty infiltration of the liver with pregnancy may develop and threaten the life of the mother to a degree that termination of pregnancy appears to be the only solution to save her life. The present study investigated the structural changes of the liver of young adult female albino rats during pregnancy and compared them with the corresponding findings after administration of silymarin, a hepatoprotective agent, during pregnancy. Thirty adult female albino rats, three months old, were used in this study. Ten of them were used as a control group, while the other twenty rats were divided into two experimental groups, ten rats each. Animals of the first group were subjected to pregnancy, while animals of the other experimental group received the heptoprotective agent, silymarin, at a dose 2.5 mg dissolved in saline once daily throughout their pregnancy. Liver samples of both groups were examined by light and transmission electron microscopes comparing the findings with the liver samples of control rats. Light microscopic examination of liver specimens during pregnancy revealed mild degree of cellular infiltration around the congested sinusoids and mild cytoplasmic vacuolations. The electron microscopic study clarified accumulation of lipid droplets and secondary lysosomes, mitochondrial degene ration, abundance of rough endoplasmic reticulum and marked proliferation and vesiculation of smooth endoplasmic reticulum.Disfigurement of nuclear outline together with chromatin clumping and peripheral migration of the nucleolus were observed. Also the bile canaliculi appeared dilated. Light microscopic examination of treated liver with the hepatoprotective agent, silymarin, during pregnancy revealed absence of cellular infiltration and sinusoidal congestion but demonstrated minimal cytoplasmic vacuolations. The electron microscopic study of the hepatocytes clarified absence or mild deposition of lipid droplets, restoration of mitochondrial integrity, mild proliferation of smooth endoplasmic reticulum, apparently normal rough endoplasmic reticulum, less degree of chromatin clumping and approximately central nucleolus. The absence of cellular infiltration and the minimal degree of degeneration affecting the hepatocytes and preservation of integrity of hepatocyte organelles in the treated liver with silymarin proved the hepatoprotective role of this agent, even, with the stress condition of pregnancy