histologic, metabolic, and inflammatory changes in the liver of high-fat diet-induced obese rats before and after vitamin d administration

The current study aimed to investigate the effects of vitamin d administration on the markers of inflammation and metabolic damages in the liver of high-fat diet-induced obese rats. forty male wistar rats were divided into two groups of control receiving a normal diet (nd) and intervention receiving a high-fat diet (hfd). after 16 weeks, each group was divided into two groups including nd, nd + vitamin d, hfd, and hfd + vitamin d. vitamin d was administered by oral gavage for five weeks at the dose of 500 iu/kg. hepatic mcp-1, tgf-β, and nf-κb levels, serum liver enzymes, and serum lipids, and histological and structural changes in the liver were determined. vitamin d administration significantly reduced the monocyte chemoattractant protein (mcp)-1 concentrations in the hfd + vitamin d group compared with the hfd group and reduced liver transforming growth factor beta (tgf-β) levels in both vitamin d-treated groups (p<0.05). moreover, a significant reduction in the serum levels of aspartate amino transferase (ast) and alanine amino transferase (alt) in vitamin d treated groups was identified (p<0.05). a significant improvement in lipids and a pronounced improvement in the markers of liver histology damage including fat accumulation, aggregation of inflammatory cells, pre-apoptotic changes, hepatic sinusoidal dilatation, and necrotic pyknosis in the kupffer cells were also identified. our results demonstrated that vitamin d has potential effects in ameliorating the inflammatory, metabolic, and histologic changes in the liver of these animals.