Protective effects of Bidens pilosa on hepatoxicity and nephrotoxicity induced by carbon tetrachloride in rats

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the protective effects of oral and topical treatment with Bidens pilosa (BP) against carbon tetrachloride (CCl₄)⁻ induced toxicity. Fifty-six rats were divided into seven groups: A: CCl₄ only; B: CCl₄+oral BP; C: CCl₄ and topical BP; D: CCl₄+oral and topical BP; E: oral BP only; F: negative control; and G: positive control (cyclophosphamide). The animals were treated for 10 weeks. Blood samples were collected for tests of hepatic and renal function, and fragments of the liver, spleen, pancreas, kidney, and intestine were collected for histopathological analyses. Cells from the femoral bone marrow were used for a micronucleus test and ‘comet assay’. Statistically significant differences were observed in the levels of gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT), albumin, urea and creatinine, hepatic inflammation, renal tubular lesion, and inflammation of the intestinal mucosa between the BP-treated groups and untreated group. The median number of micronuclei in group A was 4.00, in group G was 9.00 and in the other groups was 0.00. Group A had the lowest number of cells with a score of 0 and the greatest number with scores of 3 and 4, similar to the results obtained from group G using the ‘comet assay’. Thus, BP effectively protected against the toxic effects of CCl₄ on the liver, kidney, and intestine and exerted an antimutagenic effect on rats exposed to CCl₄.

Keywords:

• Bidens pilosa
• carbon tetrachloride
• cyclophosphamide
• liver
• genotoxicity

Acknowledgments

We thank Ana Vanuire Rombi of the Laboratory of Clinical Analysis of the Veterinary Hospital of UNOESTE for conducting the biochemical examinations and the technicians of the Laboratory of Pathological Anatomy and Cytopathology of the UNOESTE, Carlos Alexandre Santana de Oliveira, Mariana Fonseca Motta Borges and Talita Rizo Pereira for histological processing of the specimens.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

We are grateful to the Institutional Scholarship Program of Scientific Initiation of the National Council of Scientific and Technological Development (PIBIC/CNPq) for the granting of the scientific initiation grant.