Abstract
Cholestasis is a pathological condition characterized by impaired bile flow that results in progressive liver injury and fibrosis. The current first-line treatment for cholestasis is ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), but it exhibits many limitations. Thus, there is a pressing need to find alternative or adjunct treatments. Taurine (TAU) is an amino acid that helps in bile acid conjugation and treating various liver diseases. Therefore, this work was designed to assess the TAU’s effect, either alone or in combination with UDCA, for comparable or superior therapeutic benefits in treating a bile duct ligation-induced cholestasis in a rat model. Male rats underwent a surgery for bile duct ligation (BDL) and then were treated orally with TAU, UDCA, or both, during the third and fourth weeks after BDL. BDL rats showed typical signs of cholestasis compared to sham-operated ones. These signs included increased liver weight and liver enzymes activities, hyperbilirubinemia, in addition to bile ductular hyperplasia, and hepatocytic necrosis and fibrosis. Treatment with TAU or UDCA ameliorated these structural and functional alterations. It could be concluded that TAU offers a therapeutic effect comparable to UDCA for cholestasis in rats. However, combining TAU with UDCA did not increase the therapeutic benefit beyond that achieved by administering either compound alone.