Probing Hepatoprotective Potential of Camel Milk on Sodium Arsenite Induced Liver Damage in Sprague Dawley Rats

The liver, second largest organ in the body, plays a critical role in various physiological functions and is frequently exposed to microbes, chemicals drugs and toxins, leading to an increased incidence of liver damage. Camel milk has the potential to mitigate the changes due to arsenic-induced liver damage by altering liver biomarkers i.e. aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), albumin, bilirubin, urea and creatinine. The present study was conducted on Sprague Dawley rats to evaluate the in vivo hepatoprotective potential of camel milk's on the recovery of liver tissue damaged by arsenic toxicity. Rats were divided into 4 groups; T0 (control group), T1 (sodium arsenite), T2 (sodium arsenite+10mL/kg of BW camel milk) and T3 (sodium arsenite +200mg/kg silymarin). Silymarin was selected as the standard drug for the study owing to its promising hepatoprotective effects. Blood samples were collected at the beginning (day 1) and end of the study (day 45) to assess liver and kidney biomarkers. Statistical analysis revealed that sodium arsenite significantly (p<0.05) raised the blood levels of AST, ALT and ALP, bilirubin, creatinine and urea while serum albumin levels were decreased compared to the control group. Administration of camel milk significantly reduced the elevated biomarkers, managing them closer to the normal range. The results of camel milk were even comparable to the standard drug, silymarin. Specifically, camel milk administration helped in the reduction of sodium arsenite induced elevated biomarkers such as ALT, ALP, AST, bilirubin and creatinine as compared to the sodium arsenite group. Moreover, albumin synthesis was also improved as evidenced by increased serum albumin levels in the camel milk administrated group. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that camel milk significantly exhibited hepatoprotective potential against sodium arsenite induced toxicity in rats. These findings suggest that camel milk can be used as a potential therapeutic food to prevent and treat liver as well as kidney damage caused by arsenic exposure. These results can be further validated by the clinical trials in humans.