Iranian Journal of War and Public Health

Aims:The study was designed to investigate the role of L-glutamine as therapeutic and protective agent against the effect of carbon tetrachloride on the liver of male mice. Materials and Methods:The College of Science/University of Misan animal house raised healthy, adult male 25-30 gm mice at 12-16 weeks. After splitting 50 mice into five groups, 10 male mice were the control and CCl4 the second. Group 3. Fourth (Glutamine, CCl4), fifth. Blood was drawn from chloroform-anesthetized animals and serum stored for biochemical analysis. Control and treated mice' livers were processed for the experiment. Findings:Normal liver architecture was seen in H&E-stained control mouse liver sections. Although (CCl4) liver sections showed significant histopathological changes, (CCl4 & L-glutamine) showed regeneration, some normal hepatocytes, and inflammatory cells. Near-normal Lglutamine&CCl4 architecture was observed. The central vein had normal polygonal hepatocytes with L-glutamine. PAS-stained liver sections from control mice showed normal fine glycogen granule distribution. Liver sections from (CCl4) group showed mild hepatocyte glycogen reduction and variable PAS staining. Mice liver sections from (CCl4& glutamine) showed histological changes and moderate glycogen granule distribution. Under the microscope, (Glutamine & CCl4) strongly reacted with (PAS), revealing red or pink hepatocyte cytoplasm granules. But L-Glutamine had strong PAS staining and coarse glycogen granule deposition. Group (G2) mice had significantly higher ALT levels (P<0.001), while other groups (G3, G4, G5) did not differ significantly from the control group in liver enzyme analysis. G2 and G3 mice had significantly higher AST levels (P<0.001), while G4 and G5 did not differ significantly from the control group. The G2,G3,G4 mice group exhibited a significant ALP increase (P<0.001). Not significantly different from control G5. Conclusions:The present study results indicate the protective and therapeutic effects of glutamine, against the CCl4- induced liver injury . The protective efficacy of glutamine was more potent than the therapeutic effect of glutamine, suggesting that pretreatment of glutamine confers liver protection against the toxic agent. Also, the biochemical markers for liver enzymes showed improvement.

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