Moringa oleifera leaf ethanolic extract subsidized by low doses of gamma irradiation modulates the thioacetamide induced fibrotic signs in liver of albino rats

The objective was to evaluate the role of ethanolic extract of moringa oleifera leaf (moe) administered orally followed by low doses of gamma-irradiation (ldr) on thioacetamide (taa) induced liver fibrosis in female albino rats. ldr treatment was performed by whole body gamma-irradiation of animals with 0.25gy applied on the 1st and 15th day. biochemical analysis in the serum of taa-treated rats revealed a significant increase in the levels of tumor necrosis factor (tnf-α) and transforming growth factor (tgf-β),as well as,the activities of aspartate amino transferase (ast),alanine aminotransferase (alt) and gamma glutamyl transferase (ggt). in addition,a significant elevation of malondialdehyde (mda),hydroxyproline (hyp) and nitric oxide (no) levels associated to a significant decrease of reduced glutathione (gsh) content was recorded in the liver of taa-treated rats. histopathological examination of liver sections depicted fibroblasts proliferation surrounding cytomegalic hepatocytes. a significant amelioration of liver damage was recorded in rats receiving moe and/or ldr treatment. it could be concluded that exposure to ldr intensifies the effectiveness of moe against liver fibrosis induced by taa in rats. copyright 2015 zoological society of pakistan.