Alterations in antioxidant enzyme activities and oxidative damage in alcoholic rat tissues: protective role of Thespesia populnea.

Recent advances in our understanding of the pathogenesis of alcohol-induced hepato-renal injury and the development of new approaches to its treatment have been reported in various works. This study involves alcohol-induced oxidative stress linked to the metabolism of ethanol involving both mitochondrial and peroxisomal fractions of liver and kidney. Alcohol treatment resulted in the depletion of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione reductase (GR), Glutathione-S-Transferase (GST) activities, and reduced glutathione (GSH) content, higher level of malondialdehyde (MDA) and lower levels of protein carbonyls (PC) causing malfunction of hepatic and renal tissues, when compared to control rats. Thespesia populnea (TP) leaf extracts, administered to chronic alcohol ingested rats, were envisaged to possess significant antioxidant defence properties and help in the recovery of tissues from alcohol-induced oxidative damage. The results showed that degenerative changes in hepatic and renal cells of alcoholic groups were minimized by the administration of TP leaf extracts as also revealed by histopathological examination. The current findings indicate that treatment with TP extracts reduces alcohol-induced oxidative stress, thereby protecting the hepatic and renal tissue from alcohol-induced damage.