Study of the effect of feeding different vegetable oils on liver parenchyma of hypercholesterolemic rats using cytophotometry and AgNORs enumeration

ABSTRACT

This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of continuous feeding of hypercholasterolemic rats on high fat diet [containing either corn oil,cotton oil,Canadian rapeseed oil or Egyptian rapeseed oil] on morphology, DNA content and nucleolar organizer regions [NORs] of liver cells. Hypercholesterolemia was induced in 50% adult male albino rats using high fat diet containing cholesterol, cholic acid and 20% palm stearin for 8 weeks. This diet caused fatty infiltration and mild periportal fibrosis of the liver. Feeding hypercholesterolemic rats on high fat diet containing 20% of either Egyptian or Canadian rapeseed oil for 5 weeks aggravated these changes and also caused mild to moderate dysplasia. These histopathological changes were confirmed by an increase in DNA content of the liver cells and increase number of AgNORs