Arthrospira maxima prevents the acute fatty liver induced by the administration of simvastatin, ethanol and a hypercholesterolemic diet to mice

An evident fatty liver, corroborated morphologically and chemically, was produced in CD-1 mice after five daily doses of simvastatin 75 mg/Kg body weight, a hypercholesterolemic diet and 20 percent ethanol in the drinking water. After treating the animals, they presented serum triacylglycerols levels live times higher than the control mice, total lipids, cholesterol and triacylglycerols in the liver were 2, 2 and 1.5 times higher, respectively, than in control animals. When Arthrospira maxima was given with diet two weeks prior the onset of fatty liver induction, there was a decrement of liver total lipids (40%), liver triacylglycerols (50%) and serum triacyl glycerols (50%) compared to the animals with the same treatment but without Arthrospira maxima. In addition to the mentioned protective effect, the administration of this algae, produced a significant increase (45%) in serum high density lipoproteins. The mechanism for this protective effect was not established in these experiments. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.