Obesity Medicine 20 (2020) 100300 Available online 9 September 2020 2451-8476/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Original research Crab derived dietary chitosan mollifes hyperlipidemia-induced oxidative stress and histopathological derangements in male albino rats Regina N. Ugbaja a, b, * , Dorcas I. Akinloye a , Adewale S. James a , Emmanuel I. Ugwor a , Shadiat E. Kareem a , Grace David a , Samuel O. Abolade a , Oluwabunmi E. Oyebade a a Department of Biochemistry, College of Biosciences, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, P.M.B.2240, Nigeria b Department of Chemical Sciences (Biochemistry Programme), Faculty of Science, Augustine University, Ilara- Epe, Lagos, Nigeria A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Hyperlipidemia Chitosan Antioxidant Oxidative stress High fat diet ABSTRACT Background: Induction of oxidative stress remains a critical link between hyperlipidemia and cardiovascular diseases. Chitosan (CTS) might play important roles in the management of hyperlipidemia (HLP). Hence, we evaluated the effcacy of CTS on the antioxidant status and histo-architecture of the liver and kidney of hyperlipidemic rats. Design: 30 male rats weighing between 150 and 200 g were randomly assigned into 6 groups (n = 5) as follows: normal control (fed with normal diet), Normal diet + 5% CTS (fed normal diet + 5% CTS), High Fat Diet (HFD) (received HFD only). Other groups received HFD but treated with 1, 3, and 5% CTS respectively. After 7 weeks of feeding, the rats were sacrifced. We excised the liver and kidneys for biochemical and histology evaluations. Methods: Activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (GPx), as well as the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and reduced glutathione (GSH), were estimated. Results: Compared with the normal control, the HFD group had signifcantly (p < 0.05) reduced activities of plasma, hepatic and renal CAT, GPx, and hepatic GSH level. Furthermore, MDA levels increased signifcantly in the plasma, liver, and kidneys. In addition, SOD activity increased in the kidney but reduced in the liver. Chi- tosan (especially 5% inclusion) normalized the altered biochemical indices in the treated groups. Histological evidence suggests that CTS (at 5% inclusion) ameliorated tissue damages to the liver and kidneys. Conclusion: This study concludes that CTS possesses in vivo antioxidative property against HLP- induced oxidative stress in rats. Therefore, chitosan may be a non-toxic and viable regimen in the management of obesity-related complications. 1. Introduction Hyperlipidemia (HLP), a hallmark of dysregulated lipid metabolism is the primary risk factor for cardiovascular diseases that remain a global health and economic burden. Indeed, the obesity-an outcome of sus- tained hyperlipidemia is a leading cause of death and reduced quality of life in the developed and developing countries of the world. Unhealthy nutritional habits, sedentary lifestyle, and other predisposing factors accentuate obesity (Pan et al., 2016; Meeuwsen et al., 2017). Excessive intake of the western diet characterized by high saturated fatty acid, excessive cholesterol, and simple sugars often leads to excessive calories in the body. The excessive calorie is then stored in the adipose and may even spill to non-adipose tissues (in extreme cases) leading to infamed adipose tissues (Nijhawan et al., 2019a). Activated adipose tissue macrophages (ATMs) are attracted to these stressed adipose tissues and elaborate on the recruitment of other infammatory cells. This leads to systemic infammation and oxidative stress that consequently results in other chronic diseases (Xu et al., 2003; Nijhawan et al., 2019a). Induc- tion of oxidative stress remains a principal event in the etiology of obesity. This may be due to the excessive rate of free radicals generation that may disrupt cellular antioxidant mechanisms (Nijhawan et al., 2019a). Alternatively, increased proliferation of pro-infammatory cy- tokines such as tumor necrosis – alpha (TNF-α), interleukin- 6 (IL- 6) that are capable of initiating the canonical infammatory pathway and transcription of free radical -producing NADPH oxidase (Savini et al., 2016; Nijhawan et al., 2019a) is also a causative link of hyperlipidemia. Currently available pharmacological means of controlling hyperlip- idemia are problematic due to various adverse side effects (Chiu et al., * Corresponding author. Department of Biochemistry, College of Biosciences, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, P.M.B.2240, Nigeria.; E-mail addresses: regina.ugbaja@augustineuniversity.edu.ng, ugbajarn@funaab.edu.ng (R.N. Ugbaja). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Obesity Medicine journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/obmed https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obmed.2020.100300 Received 25 June 2020; Received in revised form 27 August 2020; Accepted 30 August 2020