Article
Background: Although acetaminophen (APAP) is considered safe at therapeutic doses, intake of high
amounts of this drug can cause liver failure. In the present experiment, we examined the hepatoprotective
effects of resveratrol (RES) in HepG2 cells and rat liver.
Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the influence of RES on liver function in rat model of necrosis
and HepG2 cells.
Materials and Methods: In this study, rats were randomly assigned into 4 groups (7 rats in each group)
as follows; group 1: control rats (received normal saline), group 2: hepatotoxic control (control rats that
received 640 mg/kg/d APAP), group 3: positive control (received 150 mg/kg N-acetylcysteine), group
4: RES (received 30 mg/kg RES). The animals were treated for 7 days. Afterwards, the levels of liver
enzymes, protein carbonyl content, glutathione (GSH) level, and Tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) level
were determined.
Results: In the in vitro experiment, APAP-induced HepG2 cells were treated with RES at different
concentrations and various factors such as cell viability, liver enzymes, GSH and TNF-α levels were
measured.
Conclusions: Our results indicated that RES could normalize all these factors in vitro and in vivo (P<0.05).
In fact, RES had potential hepatoprotective effect against APAP -induced hepatotoxicity in HepG2 cells
and animal models mainly via dual change of oxidative stress and cytokine levels.