EVALUATION OF THE HEPATOPROTECTIVE AND THERAPEUTIC EFFECTS OF SILYMARIN IN AN EXPERIMENTAL CARBON-TETRACHLORIDE INTOXICATION OF LIVER IN DOGS

The efficiency of preventive administration of silymarin and of silymarin medication were tested in dogs suffering from CCl4 intoxication of liver. Sixteen dogs of the Beagle breed at the age of 8 to 10 moths and of the weight 11.5 to 14.0 kg were divided into four groups with four animals each. Those groups were administered per os a single dose of CCl4, 0.35 ml per kg liveweight contained in sunflower oil. The intact control groups was given sunflower oil free of any additive. Silymarin was administered per os in the form of suspension in the Dorfman reagent twice a day at the dose of 100 mg per kg. Silymarin was administered to the animals of the treated group four days after intoxication, to those of the preventively treated group four days before intoxication. The intact control group and the CCl4 intoxicated control were administered the pure Dorfman reagent. Pure CCl4 induced a significant increase in the AST and ALT activity in 12 and 24 hours after administration, and histological lesions in the liver - vacuolization of hepatocytes and necrobiosis of nuclei. The curative effects of silymarin on these changes were low. The protective effects of silymarin were manifested by the significantly lower AST and ALT activities in the 12th and 24th hour of the trial and by the insignificantly lower extent of lesions in liver parenchyma if compared with the control CCl4 intoxicated group.