The Effect of Urtica dioica Hydro-Alcoholic Extract on the Plasma Level of Pituitary Thyroid Axis Hormones and Some of the Liver Enzymes in Adult Male Wistar Rat

Urtica dioicais a herbaceous, perennial and enumerate medicinal plant.Urtica dioica is an indigene plant in Iran and in last years many pharmaceutics effect are reported about it plant. In this research, the effect of Urtica dioicahydro-alcoholic extract of the plasma levels of thyroid hormones (T4, T3), TSH and liver enzymes,alanin amino transfrase(ALT), aspartate amino transfrase(AST), alkaline phosphatase(ALP) were studied. In this experimental study, the experiments were performed on 40 adult male wistar rats with weight about 210±10 gr, which were divided into 5 groups. The experimental groups received 25, 50 and 100 mg/kg of the Urtica dioica extract with injected intraperitoneally (IP) for 28 days respectively. Sham group received only solvent (distilled water) and control group did not receive any thing. At the end of experiment by collecting the blood samples from heart animals, plasma level of T3,T4 and TSH were measured by using ELISA Technique and enzymes liver AST, ALT, ALP by photometric method. Detected data were analyzed by T-test and ANOVA (p≤ 0/05). The results showed significant increase in the level of TSH hormone in the each three experimental groups compared with the control group. The level of T4 hormone significantly decreased in the each three experimental groups compared with the control group. Also the level of T3 showed significant decrease in experimental group receiving 50,100 mg/kg extract compared with the control group. The Level of AST, ALT enzymes in experimental groups showed no significant difference compared with the control group, While ALP enzyme in experimental and sham groups showed significant increase compared with control group. The results of this research have been shown that extract of this plant could affect on HPT axis and have no effect on some of the liver enzymes respectively.