Medical Journal of the Islamic Republic Of Iran

en The Effect of the Saffron Intervention on NAFLD Status and Related Gene Expression in a Rat Model Gastroenterology and Liver Disease Gastroenterology and Liver Disease Original Research Original Research Background: According to the worldwide increasing prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), the present study aimed to investigate the mechanism effects of saffron consumption on preventing NAFLD in a rat model.    Methods: In an experimental study, 12 rats were randomly divided into 2 groups to be evaluated in the prevention phase for 7 weeks. In the prevention phase, the animals were randomly assigned to either fed HFHS + 250 mg/kg saffron (S) or fed with HFHS. Afterward, parts of the liver were excised for histopathologic examination. Plasma concentrations of ALT, AST, GGT, ALP, serum lipids, insulin concentrations, plasma glucose, hs-CRP, and TAC were measured. Moreover, Also, the gene expression of 6 target genes was evaluated, including FAS, ACC1, CPT1 ،PPARα ،DGAT2, and SREBP 1-c at the beginning and end of the study. Also, the differences among groups were evaluated by the Mann-Whitney test for non-normal data and the independent t test for normal data.    Results: The prevention phase groups have a significant elevation in body weight (P = 0.034) and food intake (P = 0.001) of the HFHS group versus HFHS + 250 mg/kg S group. Also, there was a significant difference between groups 1 and 2 for ALT (P = 0.011) and AST (P = 0.010), and TG (P = 0.040). The HFHS group had higher plasma levels of FBS (P = 0.001), insulin (P = 0.035), HOMA-IR (P = 0.032), and lower TAC (P = 0.041) versus the HFHS+ S group. Also, the difference between HFHS + 250 mg/kg S and HFHS for PPARα gene expression was significant (P = 0.030).    Conclusion: The present study showed that consumption of saffron could prevent developing NAFLD in rats at least partially through modulation in gene expression of PPARα. Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Saffron, Liver Enzymes, Blood Lipids, Liver Histopathology, Insulin Resistance, Inflammation, Gene Expression 207 214 http://mjiri.iums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-2627-3&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Roya Alipour ROYA.ALIPOUR2231@GMAIL.COM 200319475328460076628 200319475328460076628 No Department of Nutrition Sciences, School of Public Health, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Naheed Aryaeian aryaeian.n@iums.ac.ir 200319475328460076629 200319475328460076629 Yes Department of Nutrition Sciences, School of Public Health, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Ghazaleh Hajiluian Lghazalehl@yahoo.com 200319475328460076630 200319475328460076630 No Department of Nutrition Sciences, School of Public Health, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Mansoure Soleimani soleimani@iums.ac.ir 200319475328460076631 200319475328460076631 No Department of Histology and Anatomy, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Mahmood Barati Mahmood.barati@gmail.com 200319475328460076632 200319475328460076632 No Cellular and Molecular Research Center, & Department of Medical Biotechnology, Faculty of Allied Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran