Histopathological study on the effects of Crocin on prevention of fatty liver disease in the rats fed with high fat diet

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is now recognized as the most common type of liver disease and might lead to an important public health problem. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the protective effects of Crocin on rat high fat diet-induced hepatic steatosis model. For this purpose male Wistar rats were given either control diet, high fat diet alone or high fat diet plus Crocin via gavage at different doses (25, 50 and 100 mg/kg) for 4 weeks in different experimental groups. Histopathological studies of the liver were conducted in all experimental rats at the end of experiment. Animals of the different groups were sacricified by cervical dislocation. Liver issue specimens were fixed in 10% buffered formalin and 5 micron thick sections were prepared using routine hitopathological techniques.The serum levels of aminotransferases, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) were measured to determine hepatocyte injury. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and total bilirubin (TB) were measured to assess biliary function. Albumin (Alb) and total protein (TP) was measured to reflect liver synthetic function. Histopathology of the liver in high fat diet fed rats showed severe fatty change of hepatocytes. Crocin reduced accumulation of lipid droplets in the hepatocytes in a dose dependent manner. In the high fat diet fed rats, serum levels of ALT, AST, ALP and TB significantly (p