Effect of Low-dose Indole-3-Butyric Acid on Hematological and Serum Biochemical Parameters against Thioacetamide-Induced Acute Hepatotoxicity in Rats

Although indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) is an efficient growth regulator in plant and its toxicity of high-dose (500mg/kg) have been repeatedly demonstrated against non-targeting organisms including human and animals, there have been not previously published very low-dose study on animals. So, we designed this study to uncover the effects of very low-dose (15-60µg/kg) of IBA on the thioacetamide (TAA)-induced acute hepatotoxicity in rat models. The pretreatment of IBA (60 µg/kg) was found to prevent the TAA-induced body weight loss and dehydration as well as histopathological injuries. The administration of TAA induced metabolic acidosis (decreases in blood pH, bicarbonate, base excess in blood and base excess in extracellular fluid), respiratory acidosis (decreases in saturated oxygen and partial pressure of oxygen; increase in partial pressure of carbon dioxide), fluctuations in blood energy-related enzymes (increases in ALT, AST and LDH) and metabolites (decreases in albumin, glucose, total protein, but increases in triglycerides and total cholesterol) and changes in blood ions (decreased calcium but increased magnesium). Also, the pretreatment of IBA prevented the TAA-induced changes gradually in a dose-dependent manner, especially inhibited the changes at 60 µg/kg. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that the low-dose IBA treatment may have the therapeutic effect against acute hepatic injuries via protective pathways against metabolic disorders, acidosis, membrane permeability fluctuations, ionic imbalance and tissue damage caused by oxidative damage caused by TAA.