Assessment of the Protective Role of Herbal Drug Iberogast (STW5) in Prevention of Hepatic Histopathological Damage Caused by Acute Inflammation in Rats

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Iberogast with commercial name of STW 5 is a well known herbal drug, which contains stable components of hydroethanolic extract from 9 different herbal drugs. This study was carried out with the purpose of assessing the protective effects of STW 5 in different doses on the hepatic histopathological damages induced by experimental cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) model in septic rats. Methods: In this experimental study, 36 rats were divided into six groups (six rats in each group): Sham-operated (SOP); CLP group; CLP+STW 5 (received doses of 2.5, 5, and 10mg/kgBW) as treatment groups; and CLP+Indomethacin (10mg/kgBW) as positive control. The herbal drug STW 5 and Indomethacin were injected ip, immediately after sepsis induction. After 24 hour, the rats were sacrificed and the liver tissue was qualitatively and quantitatively examined in terms of histological changes. The differences between the data were determined by one-way ANOVA and post hoc Tukey’s HSD and the significant levels were defined as p<0.05. Results: The findings indicated that increased level of infiltrated and/or sequestrated polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) and also, elevated level of histological index of the severity of liver injuries in the CLP group were not improved after treatment with Iberogast. Conclusion: Considering the results of this study, ip injection of STW 5 immediately after sepsis induction had no effect on the modulation of histological parameters related to liver damages in CLP rat model.

Keywords

• iberogast
• inflammation
• clp model
• organ injury index
• liver