This study was aimed to comparison of the effects of the chronic use of the Ribavirin and caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) on the pancreatic damage and hepatotoxicity in rats.
Methods: The rats were given orally 30 mg/kg/day doses of Ribavirin for 30 days, and intraperitoneally 10 μmol/kg doses of CAPE. The 37 rats were divided into 4 groups: (I) Control (n=7), (II) Ribavirin (R) (n=10), (III) CAPE (n=10), and (IV) R+CAPE (n=10).
Results: Ribavirin and CAPE yielded similar results in terms of Serum, total antioxidant status (TAS), total oxidant status (TOS), amylase, lipase, and insulin compared to the control group. However, while Ribavirin provided similar results with the control group in terms of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) enzymes, the CAPE group had elevated AST and ALT levels compared to the control group. Histopathologic evaluations revealed that CAPE or Ribavirin had no degenerative effects on both the pancreas and liver tissues. In this way, the biochemical results were confirmed by the histopathologic results.
Conclusion: It can be concluded that Ribavirin does not lead to any pancreatic damage and hepatotoxicity, and has more beneficial effects than CAPE on especially liver tissue.
Keywords: CAPE; hepatotoxicity; insulin; oxidative stress; pancreatic damage; ribavirin.