Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: Biliary cirrhosis is a chronic disease marked by the progressive destruct-tion of liver. There is no known cure for this disease however, medications may slow its progression. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of quercetin as a plant derived flavonoid on the hepatic injury reduction of biliary cirrhotic rats.
Methods: Thirty male Sprague-Dawley rats aged 6-7 months were randomized into three groups of ten each. One group served as control (sham operated), while the other two groups underwent a complete bile-duct ligation (BDL). Four weeks after the opera-tion, serum bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), alanine amino-transferase (ALT), and aspartate amino-transferase (AST) were measured in two BDL groups to confirm the occurrence of cirrhosis. Then one of the BDL groups received placebo and the other one injected intraperitoneally with 50mg/kg of quercetin once a day for a period of four weeks. At the end of the study, hepatic enzymes and serum bilirubin were measured again. Liver species were tested for histological characteristics.
Results: Quercetin could decrease serum level of bilirubin (7.4±0.9 vs. 8.9±1.6 mg/dL P<0.05), ALP (1387±76.9 vs. 2273±65.3 IU/L P<0.001) and ALT (601.9±38.1 vs. 644.8±37.4 IU/L P<0.05) compared to cirrhotic group. AST was higher in cirrhotic groups compared to control both in the 4th and 8th week. However, the difference between BDL and BDL+Q groups was not statistically significant. Quercetin decreased ALT/AST ratio, as an indicator of liver damage. No significant histological changes were observed in quercetin group.
Conclusion: These data suggest that although quercetin did not change histological characteristics of liver, it could significantly decrease bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase and alanine amino-transferase, indicating less liver injury.