Abstract
Background:
Cholestasis is a health problem, both in humans and animals medicine, which in the course of the disease involves oxidative stress, inflammation, and liver fibrosis. EA has been proven to have good effects for various diseases.
Aim:
This study was conducted to determine the effect of EA in protecting liver damage due to cholestasis. In addition, to understand the underlying mechanism of liver damage in rats as a model animal by bile duct ligation (BDL) technique.
Methods:
In this study, male adult rats were used and randomly divided into 3 treatment groups. S is the Sham-operated group, BDL is the group that is treated with bile duct ligation (BDL) and the BDL-EA group is treated with BDL and given EA by gavage at a dose of 60 mg/kg bw/day, starting on the second day after BDL and given for 21 days. AST, ALT, ALP, GGT were evaluated using spectrophotometer; TNF- α and TGF- β1 were evaluated using sandwich ELISA dan histopathological examination using HE and MT staining.
Results:
In this study, BDL significantly increased serum levels of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and hepatic gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT). In addition, BDL also increased levels of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), and growth factor beta 1 (TGF-β1) compared to sham-operated controls. Histological studies in the BDL group also showed that the BDL increased the degree of necro- inflammation and collagen deposition area in the liver compared to the sham-operated group.
Administration of EA has been shown to significantly improve liver morpho-function of the liver. These changes were attenuated in the BDL-EA group, where all observed study variables appeared to have improved.
Conclusion:
EA has been shown to reduce cholestasis that causes liver injury and improve liver enzyme profiles and is suspected to have occurred as a result of its activities as an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic.

Key words: BDL, Cholestasis, Ellagic acid, Liver fibrosis