NE US Academic Publishers Advances in Animal and Veterinary Sciences February 2016 | Volume 4 | Issue 2 | Page 85 INTRODUCTION A zithromycin is a macrolide antibiotic recommended as frst line therapy for prophylaxis and treatment of disseminated infection caused by Mycobacterium avium in- tracellulare in AIDS patients and for the treatment of pul- monary disease in non-HIV infected patients (Kovacs and Masur, 2000; Rao et al., 2014). Tough it was considered as a safe drug with mild gastrointestinal symptoms and skin rashes (Leclercq, 2002), high doses employed for the treatment of Mycobacterium avium complex caused tinnitus, dizziness and reversible hearing loss ( Wallace et al., 1994; Lin et al., 2010). Moreover, there are contradictory reports on lower and higher (FDA, 2013; Rao et al., 2014) risks of death associated with azithromycin therapy. Hepatotoxicity and ototoxicity are the two well established adverse reactions to macrolide antibiotics. Azithromycin Research Article Abstract | Te hepatotoxic potential of azithromycin and the ameliorative role of vitamin E in azithromycin induced toxicity were studied in adult Wistar rats. Te study also assessed the efectiveness of pretreatment and posttreatment of Vitamin E in protecting against the injury caused. Azithromycin at 30mg/kg and Vitamin E at 50 IU/kg were administered orally for a period of ffteen days. Azithromycin at the administered dose did not afect the body weight gain or the relative liver weight in treated rats whereas it signifcantly (P<0.01) decreased the alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase activities in liver. Pretreatment with vitamin E increased the levels of ALT, AST and SOD with no signifcant varia- tions in the levels of ALP and catalase activities in the liver of rats. Signifcant (P<0.01) increase in the levels of AST and SOD in liver was also observed during posttreatment with vitamin E. Te hematological parameters viz., total erythrocyte count, hemoglobin concentration, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin, packed cell volume and diferential leucocyte count did not show any signifcant variation among diferent groups while the total leukocyte count was signifcantly (P<0.01) increased in vitamin E alone and Vitamin E pre and posttreatment groups. Histopathology of liver of azithromycin treated group revealed cloudy swelling, periportal fatty change and bile duct hyperplasia. Te results of this study revealed that pretreatment with vitamin E could mitigate the lesions induced by azithromycin more efectively than the posttreatment. Hence, vitamin E prophylaxis at 50 IU/kg may be considered benefcial for protection of liver against azithromycin induced damage. Keywords | Azithromycin, Hepatotoxicity, ALT, AST, Catalase, SOD, Vitamin E PRASEENA PAULOSE 1 , SANIS JULIET 1 , SUJITH SAMRAJ 1 , SURESH NARAYANAN NAIR 1 , LEENA CHANDRASEKHAR 2 , AJITH JACOB GEORGE 3 , GOPAKUMAR NARAYANAN 1 , KOSHY JOHN 4 , REGHU RAVINDRAN 5* Ameliorative Efect of Vitamin E on Azithromycin Induced Biochemical and Histological Changes in Liver Tissue of Rats Editor | Kuldeep Dhama, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Uttar Pradesh, India. Received | October 14, 2015; Revised | December 26, 2015; Accepted | December 28, 2015; Published | February 12, 2016 *Correspondence | Reghu Ravindran, Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Pookode, Wayanad, Kerala, India; Email: drreghuravi@yahoo.com Citation | Paulose P, Juliet S, Samraj S, Nair SN, Chandrasekhar L, George AJ, Narayanan G, John K, Ravindran R (2016). Ameliorative efect of vitamin E on azithromycin induced biochemical and histological changes in liver tissue of rats. Adv. Anim. Vet. Sci. 4(2): 85-91. DOI | http://dx.doi.org/10.14737/journal.aavs/2016/4.2.85.91 ISSN (Online) | 2307-8316; ISSN (Print) | 2309-3331 Copyright © 2016 Paulose et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 1 Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology; 2 Department of Veterinary Anatomy and Histology; 3 Department of Veterinary Pathology; 4 Department of Veterinary Microbiology; 5 Department of Veterinary Parasitology, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Pookode, Wayanad, Kerala 673576, India.