Amelioration of heat stress-induced hepatic injury in wistar rats by zinc-enriched probiotics: Role of hepatic antioxidant status and serum enzymes activity

Zinc-Enriched probiotics improve liver condition of Wistar rats reared under heat stress. For this purpose, four groups of ten-week-old Wistar rats were as follow: Control (Con); heat stress (HS); probiotics plus heat stress (HS+P); and Zinc-enriched probiotics plus heat stress (HS+ZnP). The experimental groups (HS+P and HS+ZnP) were exposed to higher environmental temperature (40-42 C) while the rats in the control group were raised at room temperature (25 C). The experiment proceeded to 42 days, blood and liver tissues were gathered and investigated at end of the experiment to study liver morphology and indicators. The results obtained from the experiment showed, that the body weight of HS group dropped suddenly. However, elevation in liver weight and liver index was observed. H&E examination revealed that in HS group liver sinusoids were dilated and central veins were congested. Additionally, liver histomorphology of HS+P and HS+ZnP was diverted to its originality and significant decrement was observed in terms of serum ALT, AST, ALP, and hepatic MDA but increment in liver SOD and GSH-PX activities was recorded compared to HS group. To conclude, Wistar rats can be protected from hepatic injury caused by thermal stress through ZnP supplementation in the diet.