Calcium supplementation shows a hepatoprotective effect against high-fat diet by regulating oxidative-induced inflammatory response and lipogenesis activity in male rats

Background and aim: High-fat diet (HFD) triggers obesity-related metabolic diseases like non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases (NAFLD). Calcium supplementation is known to have an anti-obesity effect. However, the effect of calcium supplementation has not been evaluated so far in context to hepatic functions on exposure to HFD. The goal of the present study was to investigate the role of calcium supplementation on hepatic function and other physiological markers in HFD induced NAFLD rats. Experimental procedure: 18 male Wistar rats were divided into two groups; first group considered control group (n = 6) for the entire treatment period and the second group (n = 12) fed with HFD for 6 weeks to induce NAFLD model and then sub-divided into two groups (n = 6 rats); one group received HFD and other group received 1.0 gm CaCO_3/100 gm HFD for 30 days. After treatment, all animals were euthanized to collect the blood and liver for biochemical, enzymatic, oxidative, anti-oxidant, western blot and histological study. Results and conclusion: Calcium supplementation significantly improved the anthropometric parameters and decreases the level of serum cholesterol, triglyceride, FFA and hepatic enzymes. Calcium supplementation significantly down-regulated the hepatic PPAR-γ mediated FAS activity, hepatic lipid accumulation, oxidative stress and restored the activities of antioxidant enzyme which further prevented the stimulation of pro-inflammatory response. Calcium supplementation also increases the hepatic protein expression of phosphorylated AMP-activated protein kinase. So, calcium supplementation showed a hepatoprotective effect during NAFLD by down-regulating the oxidative induced inflammatory response stimulated by hepatic lipogenesis activity and subsequent lipid accumulation.