Folic acid supplemented goat milk has beneficial effects on hepatic physiology, haematological status and antioxidant defence during chronic Fe repletion María JM Alférez, Emilio Rivas, Javier Díaz-Castro, Silvia Hijano, Teresa Nestares, Miguel Moreno, Margarita S Campos, Jose A Serrano-Reina and Inmaculada López-Aliaga* Department of Physiology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Granada and Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology, Granada 18071, Spain Received 14 April 2014; accepted for publication 30 September 2014; first published online 14 November 2014 The aim of the current study was to asses the effect of goat or cow milk-based diets, either normal or Fe-overloaded and folic acid supplement on some aspects of hepatic physiology, enzymatic antioxidant defence and lipid peroxidation in liver, brain and erythrocyte of control and anaemic rats after chronic Fe repletion. 160 male Wistar rats were placed on 40 d in two groups, a control group receiving normal-Fe diet and the Fe-deficient group receiving low Fe diet. Lately, the rats were fed with goat and cow milk-based diets during 30 d, with normal-Fe content or Fe-overload and either with normal folic or folic acid supplemented. Fe-overload increased plasma alanine transaminase and aspartate transaminase levels when cow milk was supplied. Dietary folate supplementation reduced plasma transaminases levels in animals fed goat milk with chronic Fe overload. A remarkable increase in the superoxide dismutase activity was observed in the animals fed cow milk. Dietary folate supplement lead to a decrease on the activity of this enzyme in all the tissues studied with both milk-based diets. A concomitant increment in catalase was also observed. The increase in lipid peroxidation products levels in rats fed cow milk with Fe-overload, suggest an imbalance in the functioning of the enzymatic antioxidant defence. In conclusion, dietary folate-supplemented goat milk reduces both plasma transaminases levels, suggesting a hepatoprotective effect and has beneficial effects in situation of Fe-overload, improving the antioxidant enzymes activities and reducing lipid peroxidation. Keywords: Goat and cow milk, folic acid supplementation, antioxidant enzymes, lipid peroxidation: chronic iron repletion. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) is one of the most common health problems worldwide, but in contrast, the recommendations of this mineral are higher in some populations (Ekström et al. 2002), leading in many cases to Fe-overload. Hepatotoxicity is common in patients with Fe supplements, followed by many other pathologies involving cardiovascular, endocrine and muscular systems. Fe excess in the body leads to generation of reactive oxygen species and severe damage to cell constituents (Piloni et al. 2013) Fe is a necessary cofactor in many metabolic processes in the central nervous system, including oxidative phosphor- ylation, myelin synthesis, neurotransmitter production, nitric oxide metabolism and oxygen transport (Díaz-Castro et al. 2012). The liver has a key role in metabolism, eliminating xenobiotics and endogenous metabolites, and the anti- oxidant enzymes protect the cells (including hepatocytes) from the oxidative stress (Díaz-Castro et al. 2013). Our research group has previously reported that goat milk consumption has positive influence on enzymatic anti- oxidant defence, even in situation of Fe-overload in compari- son with cow milk (Díaz-Castro et al. 2012). In addition, goat milk fat has a higher nutritional quality than cow milk fat (Alférez et al. 2001) and improves Fe metabolism (Nestares et al. 2008). However, in spite of its nutritional quality and healthy benefits, goat milk folic acid content is much lower than in cow milk (Haenlein, 2001). The folic acid is an essential water-soluble vitamin that can regulate many cellular pathways such as growth and differentiation, DNA repair, apoptosis and carcinogenesis prevention, and in *For correspondence; e-mail: milopez@ugr.es Journal of Dairy Research (2015) 82 86–94. © Proprietors of Journal of Dairy Research 2014 doi:10.1017/S0022029914000624 86