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Abstract
The liver is an organ of great importance which plays an important role in many metabolic processes. Hypercholesterolemia is one of the most harmful factors in producing liver fibrosis. This work was aimed to identify the hepato-protective effect of ellagic acid in liver fibrosis induced by hypercholesterolemia in Albino rats. Seventy two adult male Albino rats were selected for this work and they were divided into control group, hypercholesterolemic diet group, and a group with hypercholesterolemic diet supplemented with or without ellagic acid. Animals of each group were sacrificed at 6, 9 and 12 months respectively. The removed liver from the animals were processed for staining with H&E, Masson{u2019}s trichrome to demonstrate the changes in fine collagenous fibers, Toluidin blue to stain mast cells and immunohistochemical staining for Ü-SMA to demonstrate hepatic stellate cells and CD-68 to demonstrate von Kupffer cells. The examined liver of hypercholesterolemic rats showed foamy hepatocytes that appeared first at the periphery of the hepatic lobules and extended at 9 and 12 months to the rest of the lobules. By time more and more cells started to show ballooning. These changes were accompanied by vascular congestion with an increase of the collagen and microfibril content as the duration increased. The statistical analysis of the obtained results concerning the distribution of area percent of Ü- SMA immunoreactive hepatic stellate cells revealed marked increase of these cells among the hepatocytes parallel to the increase in collagen deposition as shown in Masson{u2019}s trichrome stained sections