Acetaminophen is one of the most common pharmaceuticals associated with both intentional and accidental poisoning. Acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity is the most frequent cause of fulminant liver failure, and can have a mortality rate 90%. The present work aimed at the investiga­tion of the possible effect of trimetazi-dine in preventing acetaminophen -induced hepatotoxicity and comparing it with the traditionally used N- acetyl cysteine for the same purpose.
The present study was carried out on 40 mice. Mice were divided into 2 main groups. Group I: consisted of 10 animals considered as control group and received saline. Group II: consist­ed of 30 animals which were subdivid­ed into 3 equal subgroups (10 mice/
subgroup) as follows : subgroup (IIA): served as acetaminophen only treat­ed group.in a dose of 500 mg/kg intra-gastrically. Subgroup (KB): acetami-nophen treated mice treated with N-acetyl cysteine in a dose of 200mg/kg intragastrically one hour before ad­ministration of acetaminophen. Sub­group (IIC): acetaminophen treated mice treated with trimetazidine in a dose of 20 mg/kg intragastrically one hour before administration of acetami­nophen. Liver cell integrity was moni­tored by measurement of serum glu-tamate pyruvate transaminase (SGPT). Glutathione (GSH) in blood and malondialdehyde (MDA) in serum were assessed. Liver cell integrity was also confirmed by histopathologi-cal examination for assessing the dis­tribution and extent of cell death. Mice treated with acetaminophen only