BACKGROUND: Carbon tetrachloride (CCl₄ ) is a toxic material known to induce lipid peroxidation and liver damage.     The possible protective roles that involved by chitosan or chitosan-Cu complex against CCl₄ induced liver intoxication were investigated in male rats. RESULTS: CCl₄ administred at dose 20  mg/kg body weight i.p., exceed malondialdehyde (MDA) and protein carbonyle (PC), depleted superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione (GSH), in concomitant with marked increase in investigated liver function parameters , alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase (ALT, AST), impaired serum and liver total protein , albumin and globulin. An elevation in serum and hepatic total lipids, total cholesterol, triglycerides and serum LDL and VLDL levels as well as a low level of HDL were recorded. In the same time, there was a significant increase in sodium and iron contents in the serum while a significant decrease in potassium and zinc contents were recorded.    Animals pretreated with chitosan (200 mg /kg body weight) orally by stomach tube for 21 consecutive days prior to CCl₄ challenge significantly attenuated most of the tested parameters, strengthen antioxidant defense system, ameliorated liver function effectively. Chitosan-Cu complex has a protective effect by a higher degree than that of chitosan only. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that pretreatment with chitosan-Cu complex has higher hepato-protective effects than that of only chitosan against CCl₄ induced toxicity in rat.