Some morphometric evidence of hepatoprotective effects of (+)-cyanidanol-3.

The (+)-cyanidanol-3 is used as an antihepatotoxic and hepatoprotective drug in both men and animals against alcoholic and experimental liver injury. Histologic staining techniques give mostly qualitative or semiquantitative description of liver damages. Experiments have been carried out to determine the hepatoprotective effects of (+)-cyanidanol-3 on alcoholic liver damage (i.e., fatty liver and hepatomegaly) by morphometric measurement of the liver tissue sections. Ethanol was administered ad lib to CFY rats to cause mild alcoholic liver damage together with 200 mg/kg/day (+)-cyanidanol-3 to prevent the tissue deterioration. The changes of hepatic lobule and hepatocytes were measured morphometrically. The chronic ethanol consumption results in hepatocellular hypertrophy, a significant increase in size of the hepatocytes and a mild increase of the intralobular extrahepatocytic space as well when compared with controls. The volume of cytoplasm was increased while the parameters of nuclei were unchanged. The (+)-cyanidanol-3 prevents changes and the morphometric parameters in the treated group were almost the same as in the controls. The treatment with (+)-cyanidanol-3 alone does not affect the hepatic tissue parameters. The results show the hepatoprotective effect of (+)-cyanidanol-3 and the suitability of the morphometric method for quantitative comparison of normal and experimentally-altered liver cells.