β-Sitosterol attenuates carbon tetrachloride-induced oxidative stress and chronic liver injury in rats.

Chronic liver diseases are clinically silent and responsible for significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. β-Sitosterol (BSS), major phytosterol in plants, has a wide spectrum of protective effect against various chronic ailments. We investigated the hepatoprotective effect of BSS against carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced chronic liver injury in rats. Thirty rats were divided into five groups, with six animals in each group. Group I rats served as control while groups II, III, IV, and V rats were injected intraperitoneally with CCl4 (0.2 mL/100 g b.w. in olive oil (1:1)) for 7 consecutive weeks. After 7 weeks, group II rats were left without any treatments and served as CCl4 alone group, while groups III, IV, and V rats were treated with BSS 25 and 50 mg/kg b.w. and silymarin 100 mg/kg b.w. as oral post-treatments respectively, for the next 4 weeks. At the end of the experiment, hepatotoxicity marker enzymes in serum, oxidative stress, and fibrosis marker were analyzed. CCl4 administration caused significant elevation of marker enzymes of hepatotoxicity in serum and increased lipid peroxidation and fibrosis markers such as hydroxyproline, collagen, α-smooth muscle actin, vimentin, desmin, and matrix metalloproteinases 9 in liver tissue of rats. This treatment also caused a significant diminution of intracellular enyzmic antioxidants such as SOD and CAT in the liver tissue of rats. All the above adversities were significantly mitigated by the BSS post-treatments. The results suggest that BSS could have a hepatoprotective effect against oxidative stress-mediated CLD induced by CCl4.