Green tea as an antioxidant which protects against alcohol induced injury in rats - a histopathological examination

Abstract

Our study with animal models was designed to test the hypothesis that green tea protects against chronic (over 4 weeks) alcohol induced liver injury in rats. The research was conducted on Wistar male rats divided into 4 research groups: I - received the Libera-De Carli control diet (L-DC), II - received (L-DC) and green tea, III - received (L-DC) and ethanol and IV - received (L-DC), green tea and ethanol. When comparing groups I and II we saw less intensive steatosis in group II than in group I, which can suggest that green tea may affect the accumulation of fat in the hepatocytes and protect them against steatosis and disruption. In III, the ethanol group, the steatosis of the liver increased considerably and the green tea which was given with ethanol in group IV did not halt this, as in group IV we also observed intensive steatosis in the liver. From this data we conclude that green tea has an important, although not fully understood role in preventing liver injury.