الفهرس 
REVIEW OF LITERATUREOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Numerous diseases, such as cancer, aging and ischemia are linked to dietary and biological lipid oxidation products.
Liver is the major and chief site for food metabolism, detoxifies and removes all endogenous and exogenous substances from body. The liver injuries and damage as result of oxidative stress impair liver functions and lead to many complications.
Aspartame (ASP) is a dietary low-calorie artificial sweetener and represents a higher source of oxidative stress which cause harmful effects of acute intoxication in many organs specially on liver functions.
Rosmarinus officinalis, L. (rosemary) is an aromatic plant from the Lamiaceae family, grows in many parts of the world and rich in several antioxidants. The most important antioxidant compounds of rosemary are carnosic acid, carnosol and rosmarinic acid.
The current study was designed to explore the protective role of rosemary (Rose) against liver injury induced by aspartame (ASP). The biological experimentation was carried out on sixty male albino rats (130-140 g) which were randomly assigned into 6 groups of 10 rats each as the following:
• The 1st group (Con.) left without treatment and kept as a control group.
• The 2nd group (Rose) was administrated with a daily oral dose of rosemary extract (125 mg/ kg b.wt) for two months.
• The 3rd group (Asp) was administrated a daily oral dose of aspartame (250 mg/ kg b.wt) dissolved in distilled water for two months.
• The 4th group (Rose + Asp) were concomitantly treated with rosemary accompanied with aspartame as the same previous corresponding doses, period and route of administration.
• The 5th group (Rose then Asp) was administered rosemary for one month then aspartame for one month.
• The 6th group (Asp then Rose) was administered aspartame for one month then rosemary for one month.
At the end of the experiment, all rats were
sacrificed under ether anthesis. Blood was collected in clean dry centrifuge tubes, kept for 15 minutes and then centrifuged at 3000 rpm for 20 minutes. For the biochemical analysis; the sera were collected in micro-centrifuge tubes (Ependorph tubes) to obtain serum. The clear serum was then frozen at -20oC pending biochemical analysis that included alanine amino-transferase (ALT), aspartate amino transferase (AST), total protein, albumin, urea, creatinine, uric acid, sodium, potassium, calcium and phosphorus.
Also, tissue samples from liver were dissected. The homogenate was centrifuged at 1800 xg for 10 min in cooling centrifuge at 4 ℃. The supernatant (10%) was stored at -20 ℃ pending biochemical analysis which included oxidative stress biomarkers nitric oxide (NO) and malondialdehyde (MDA)], inflammatory markers tumor necrotic factor alpha (TNF-α), alpha fetoprotein (AFP)] and antioxidant status [catalase (CAT), super oxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione reductase (GSH) using spectrophotometric method. Other liver samples were frozen for RT-PCR analysis of caspase-3, Bax, Bcl2 and IL10 gene expression.
The results of the present study were as follows:
• The present results revealed that there are nonsignificant changes between rats received rosemary alone and control.
• Administration of aspartame for two months results in significant elevation in oxidative biomarkers (NO and MDA) in liver tissue accompanied with significant depletion in antioxidant markers (SOD, CAT and GSH). On the other hand, the pre and companied treatment with rosemary caused improvement in both oxidant and antioxidant markers.
• Rosemary extract ameliorated pro-apoptotic factors (caspase-3, Bax) and restored anti-apoptotic factor (Bcl2) which were disturbed by aspartame.
• Aspartame administration for two months caused significant elevation in inflammatory markers (TNF-α, AFP and IL10) in liver tissue, while a marked decrease in TNF-α and AFP while increase in IL10 was obtained after rosemary treatment.
• Also, aspartame increased serum levels of ALT, AST, total protein and albumin while rosemary restored these levels again.
• Moreover, serum urea, creatinine and uric acid increased by aspartame. After treatment with rosemary a marked improvement in urea and uric acid levels were obtained while nonsignificant change was observed in creatinine level.
• Serum electrolytes, Na, K, Ca and Ph were elevated by aspartame and reversed after rosemary treatment.
Upon the results obtained in the current study, it can be concluded that, rosemary extract alleviates the harmful effects of aspartame in rat’s liver through free radical scavenging, anti-lipid peroxidative, anti-apoptotic, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor activities. Notably, rosemary has a grateful role in restoration of sodium potassium and calcium phosphorus hemostasis. In this regard the current animal study has brought a convincing indication preferring the usage of natural antioxidants like rosemary as a protective strategy against toxicity induced by aspartame.