Lycopene Inhibits Cholestasis in Pregnancy

By Kyle J. Norton

Cholestasis is a condition associated with an improper secretion of bile by the liver, leading to symptoms of yellowish skin and whites of the eyes, the skin itches, urine is dark urine, and stools with light-colored and smell foul.

Most common cholestasis are caused by the diseases or conditions associated with the liver, bile duct, and pancreas.

More precisely, liver diseases such as acute hepatitis, alcoholic liver disease, primary biliary cholangitis with inflammation and scarring of the bile ducts, cirrhosis due to viral hepatitis B or C are most common causes of cholestasis.

Epidemiologically, long-term use of conventional medicines such as amoxicillin/clavulanate, chlorpromazine, azathioprine is also found to induce the aforementioned condition.

In pregnancy, cholestasis has been found to increase symptoms of itchiness and the risk for fetal distress, preterm birth, or stillbirth. 

The exact causes of cholestasis in pregnancy are unknown. However, most common risk factors associated with cholestasis pregnancy are personal or family history of cholestasis of pregnancy and history of liver damage.

Conventionally, treatment is depending on the severity of the symptoms induced by the conditions, including, ursodeoxycholic acid, to relieve itching and increase bile flow and menthol creams, to help soothe the itching.

Lycopene is a phytochemical in the class of carotenoid, a natural pigment with no vitamin A activity found abundantly in tomatoes and other red fruits and vegetables, such as red carrots, watermelons, and papayas,

Tomatoes provide about 80% of the lycopene in the world diet. In plants, lycopene protects the host against excessive photodamage and perform various functions in photosynthesis.

On finding a potential compound for the prevention of disease associated with liver oxidative stress, researchers examined the effects of lycopene on the pathogenesis of cholestasis.

Wistar albino rats.selected to the study randomized into 3 groups, including the sham group subjected to a sham operation, the BDL group subjected to bile duct ligation (BDL), and the BDL+L group subjected to BDL and treated with 10 mg/kg body weight of lycopene.

Based on the tested analysis, after 7 days of treatment, administration of lycopene showed a significant amelioration of the liver abnormal function parameters in BDL rats.

The efficacy of lycopene on treating the acute cholestasis involved in the reduction or stoppage of bile flow by the liver was attributed to significantly reduce the levels malondialdehyde, the liver oxidative stress markers, and nitric oxide associated with the overexpression free radicals.

Furthermore, lycopene also enhanced the levels of antioxidants produced by the host observed by the normalization of the levels of glutathione levels and catalase, superoxide dismutase, and glutathione S transferase activities in the BDL rats.

According to the comet assay, lycopene also protected the cellular integrity against alternation of DNA in the lymphocytes and hepatocytes of the BDL rats.

Based on the findings, researchers wrote, "These results suggest that lycopene might have protective effects on acute cholestasis".

Taken altogether, lycopene found in tomato may be considered supplements for the prevention and treatment of acute cholestasis, pending on the confirmation of the larger sample size and multicenter human study.

Intake of lycopene in the form of supplement should be taken with extreme care to prevent overdose acute liver toxicity.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Hepatoprotective and antioxidant effects of lycopene in acute cholestasis by Tokaç M, Aydin S, Taner G, Özkardeş AB, Yavuz Taşlipinar M, Doğan M, Dündar HZ, Kiliç M, Başaran AA, Başaran AN. (PubMed)