ABSTRACT

Objective: Ethyl alcohol is a substance that is widely used worldwide and known to exert toxic effects on liver. In this study, we aimed to examine the effect of L-ornithine L-aspartate (LOLA) on the toxicity of a single dose of ethyl alcohol in rats.

Subjects and Method: We used 32 randomly selected male Sprague-Dawley rats weighing 200–250 g. The rats were grouped into four groups with each group containing eight rats: Group 1: the control group, Group 2: the ethyl alcohol group, Group 3: the LOLA group and Group 4: the ethyl alcohol+LOLA group. Ethyl alcohol was administered orally through a nasogastric tube at a dose of 6 g/kg after diluting with distilled water. One hour after ethyl alcohol administration, LOLA was administered to pre-specified groups orally through a nasogastric tube at a dose of 200 mg/kg after diluting with distilled water. Liver tissue and blood samples were obtained from all rats 24 hours later to study total antioxidant capacity (TAC), total oxidant status (TOS) and oxidative stress index (OSI) levels in liver samples, and aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine transferase (ALT), TAC, TOS and OSI levels in blood samples.

Results: Serum TAC, TOS and OSI levels were higher in the groups that were administered ethyl alcohol. In addition, tissue TAC level was higher and TOS and OSI levels were lower in groups that were given ethyl alcohol. No significant changes were observed in serum and tissue TAC, TOS, OSI, ALT and AST levels in the LOLA administered groups.

Conclusion: This study showed that LOLA was not biochemically effective and exerts no oxidative stress reducing activity in liver injury due to acute ethyl alcohol toxicity.