# Effect of Spirulina (Formerly Arthospira) Maxima against Ethanol-Induced Damage in Rat Liver
## 3 Results
### Effect of Ethanol and SP on the Survival and Parameters of Liver Regeneration
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Group** & **Initial Body** & **Final Body** & **Body Weight** & **Resected Liver** & **Final liver** & **Restitution of** & **Mortality (\%)** \\  & **Weight (g)** & **Weight (g)** & **Gain (g)** & **Mass (g)** & **Weight (g)** & **Liver Mass (\%)** & **Mortality (\%)** \\ \hline Control & 259.52 \(\pm\) 2.2 a & 316.3 \(\pm\) 2.1 a & 56.78 \(\pm\) 0.9 a & - & 9.77 \(\pm\) 1.36 a & 100 a & 0 b \\ PH & 239.03 \(\pm\) 4.1 a & 247.32 \(\pm\) 2.6 b & 7.99 \(\pm\) 2.1 b & 7.34 \(\pm\) 0.33 a & 8.57 \(\pm\) 0.64 a & 83.64 \(\pm\) 1.1 a & 0 b \\ PH-EtOH & 256.33 \(\pm\) 4.3 a & 233.85 \(\pm\) 2.4 b & \(-\)22.48 \(\pm\) 2.6 c & 7.89 \(\pm\) 0.22 a & 6.94 \(\pm\) 0.30 b & 68.29 \(\pm\) 3.21 c & 16.6 a \\ PH-SP & 245.98 \(\pm\) 3.0 a & 257.67 \(\pm\) 3.9 a & 11.69 \(\pm\) 1.9 b & 9.25 \(\pm\) 0.70 a & 7.25 \(\pm\) 0.70 a & 55.14 \(\pm\) 4.81 c & 0 b \\ PH-EtOH-SP & 235.01 \(\pm\) 3.1 a & 245.74 \(\pm\) 3.1 b & 10.73 \(\pm\) 2.7 b & 6.82 \(\pm\) 1.04 b & 7.98 \(\pm\) 0.11 a & 71.08 \(\pm\) 3.0 b,c & 0 b \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} Values with different letters in the same column are significantly different with \(p<0.05\).  
\end{table} 
Table 1: Effect of the administration of EtOH and SP on body weight and survival in rats, and restitution of liver mass. Values are expressed as the mean \(\pm\) standard error of the mean (SEM) in each experimental group (n = 6). Serum glucose concentrations for the groups: PH, PH-EtOH, and PH-SP presented a significant increase (\(p<0.05\)) with respect to the control group. Additionally, the increase in blood glucose in the groups: PH and PH-EtOH also showed significant differences with respect to the animals treated with SP and EtOH (PH-EtOH-SP), a group that restored glucose levels (129.68 \(\pm\) 1.4 mg/dL) to similar values of the control (116.92 \(\pm\) 2.0 mg/dL). Hepatectomy (PH) and the administration of EtOH (PH-EtOH) showed significant decreases (\(p<0.05\)) in albumin with respect to the values of the control group (3.54 \(\pm\) 0.10 g/dL) and the PH-EtOH-SP group (3.61 \(\pm\) 0.17 g/dL). However, it was observed that, in the animals treated with SP, that is, those in the PH-SP and PH-EtOH-SP groups, these presented a tendency toward normalizing the albumin values (Table 3). Figure 1: Histological profiles of liver cells. (**A**) Depicts the control group in which the liver histology is normal; (**B**) moderate congestion in group PH; (**C**) PH-EtOH, microvesicular steatosis (circle), inflammation (arrow), apoptosis, necrosis, and congestion; (**D**) moderate congestion in PH with SP group; (**E**) PH-EtOH-SP, decrease in apoptosis, necrosis and microvascular steatosis, mitotic images (arrow). (**A**–**E**): bar = 15 μm. The results for CAT enzyme indicate that, in the PH group, there is a significant decrease (\(p\) < 0.05) with respect to the normal values of the control (19.5463 \(\pm\) 0.8 mmol/min/mg protein). Similarly, in the PH-EtOH group, there was a significant reduction of 54.09% in hepatic CAT (10.5729 nmol/min/mg protein). Regarding the results obtained from SOD, the PH group presented the lowest concentrations (1.1548 \(\pm\) 0.9 U/min/mg/protein), its values being significant with the rest of the experimental groups. In contrast, in the PH-EtOH group, a significant increase in SOD values (7.2067 U/min/mg/protein) occurred compared to the control group and PH-EtOH-SP group. The CAT and SOD activities in the SP-treated groups were restored to near-normal values. In addition, the GSH activity in the liver presented in the animals of the group with PH treated with EtOH decreased significantly (\(p\) < 0.05) with respect to the control group PH and PH-SP-EtOH. As demonstrated for GSH in the groups treated with SP, the GSH activity was restored to a level practically equal to that of the control group. Likewise, the quantification of GR was lower for this same experimental group (PH-EtOH), showing significant differences (\(p\) < 0.05) with respect to all the experimental groups.