Protective effect of emodin pretreatment in young rats with intrahepatic cholestasis

To investigate the protective effect of emodin in young rats with intrahepatic cholestasis. A total of 120 young Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into control, model, and high-, medium-, and low-dose emodin groups, with 24 rats in each group. The rats in the control and model groups were given sodium carboxymethyl cellulose solution by gavage, while the other groups were given different doses of emodin solution by gavage. On the 5th day of experiment, alpha-naphthylisothiocyanate (ANIT, 50 mg/kg) was applied by gavage to establish the model of intrahepatic cholestasis in all groups except the control group. At 24, 48, and 72 hours after gavage, 8 rats in each group were sacrificed. Colorimetry was used to measure the serum levels of total bilirubin (TBIL), direct bilirubin (DBIL), total bile acid (TBA), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), gamma glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) in each group, and hematoxylin-eosin staining was applied to obser