Ribavirn is an anti-hepatitis C virus and other virus drug all over the world. Green tea is one of popular beverages among the whole population-possesses important activities such as antioxidant, antimutation, anticarcinogenesis, antibiotic effect, antihypertension, antihyperglycemia and anti-inflammatory effects. Daily oral administration of ribavirin (90 mg/kg bw) for one month to rats causes damage to hepatic cells such as cytoplasmic vacuolization, congestion of blood vessels, disruption of sinusoids, leucocytic infiltration and rupture in the cell membranes. Nuclear changes include change in size of nuclei and loss of chromatin. Histochemically, ribavirin induced reduction in the general carbohydrates and total protein content in liver cell as well as statistical significant elevation in AST and ALT activities in the serum. Most of these changes disappeared after one week of stopping ribavirin treatment. Drinking aqueous green tea solution (2%) for two weeks before and throughout ribavirin administration alleviated most of these alterations to the extent that slight histological and histochemical changes were detected and no statistical significant difference was noted in liver function enzymes between controls and animals given green tea with ribavirin. In addition, Daily oral administration for one month ribavirin caused change in the size and shape of seminiferous tubules, cytoplasmic vacuolization of some spermatogenic cells, change in intertubular connective tissue, clumping of sperms, and increase in the thickness of the covering capsule. Some pyknotic nuclei were observed. Ribavirin caused increase in carbohydrate and decrease total protein contents in the testis. Moreover, ribavirin administration induced significant reduction in testosterone level in the serum that continued in the recovery period. Drinking green tea for two weeks before ribavirin administration and throughout ribavirin administration reduced the histological alterations in testes and returned the histochemical components to normal limits but failed to maintain the normal levels of the testosterone which still suffered statistical significant decrease even in the recovery period.
Key words: Ribavirin, green tea, liver, testis, histology, general carbohydrates, total proteins, AST, ALT, testosterone
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