Abstract

Quail eggs contain lots of vitamins and minerals that help fight some diseases in the body. Overdose of paracetamol® (acetaminophen) is considered one of the major causes of damages to liver cells. This study was conducted to assess the effect of graded doses of quail egg pretreatment on lipid profile and liver histomorphology of acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity in rats. Thirty (30) albino rats were assigned into 5 groups of 6 rats per group. Rats in groups 2-4 were pretreated with 30 mg/kg, 15 mg/kg, 7.5 mg/kg respectively of quail egg solution for 7 days before intoxication with 2000 mg/kg paracetamol® orally. Rats in group 5 were intoxicated but pretreated with distilled water (DW) at 10 ml/kg to serve as negative control while rats in group 1 were not intoxicated but pretreated with DW (10 ml/kg) (positive control). Fourty eight (48 h) hours post intoxication, blood was collected for lipid profile analysis. Thereafter, 2 rats per group were humanely sacrificed and the liver collected for histomorphological examination. The results obtained showed that 30 mg/kg quail egg-pretreated rats (Group 2 rats) had significantly (P<0.05) lower levels of total cholesterol, low density lipoproten, triglyceride and very low density lipoprotein when compared with that of the negative control. Hepatic histomorphometric results indicate that the vacuolar degeneration observed in all the acetaminophen-induced liver damaged rats were less severe in the liver of group 2 rats. It was concluded that the quail egg pretreatment at the dose of 30 mg/kg was hypolipidemic and posses hepatoprotective properties.

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