Effect of garlic active principle, diallyl disulfide, on cell viability, lipid peroxidation, glutathione concentration and its related enzyme activities in primary rat hepatocytes

This study investigated the effects of various concentrations and incubatio n time intervals of diallyl disulfide (DADS), the active principle of garli c, on: 1, cell viability, 2. lipid peroxidation. and 3. glutathione (GSH) c oncentration and its related enzyme activities of rat hepatocytes. Accordin g to the results of LDH leakage and microscopic examination, 0.5 and I mM D ADS did not significantly affect the viability of hepatocytes. However, sig nificant decrease in cell viability according to increased LDH leakage and significant changes in morphology of hepatocytes were observed at 2 mM DADS (P<0.05). Lipid peroxidation was also detected when the hepatocytes were t reated with 2 mM DADS. At 0.5 mM DADS, a higher GSH content was found in th e hepatocytes although not at a statistically significant level. 0.5 and 1 mM DADS has little effect on the activities of glutathione-Stransferase (GS T) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx); however a significant decrease in GST, GPx and glutathione reductase (GRd) activities was observed at 2 mM DADS. Once the media of 2 mM DADS was replaced with fresh medium at 24 hr treatme nt, the activities of GST, GRd and GPx were recovered, although they were s till lower than the control values.