ABSTRACT We assessed the effects of different amounts of water-treated black tea waste (BTW) in the diets of laying hens on performance, egg quality, yolk peroxidation, and blood parameters in this study. The experiment lasted for 12 weeks, during which a total of 108 Lohman layers, of 24 weeks old, were randomly allocated to one of six dietary treatments (18 hens each); each treatment consisted of six replicate cages, each containing three hens. Experimental animals were fed a commercial diet that contained 0 (control), 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100% BTW in place of wheat bran. Providing BTW in diets for laying hens, instead of wheat bran, did not have a significant effect on egg production, egg weight, or body weight change. As the amount of BTW in the diet increased, feed intake, cracked egg rates, and feed conversion ratio linearly increased. Additionally, use of BTW in diets of laying hens did not influence some egg quality parameters, such as shape index or shell strength. Increasing proportions of BTW in the diet, however, had a quadratic effect on yolk color and shell weight, a linear effect on yolk index and shell thickness, and a cubic effect on albumen index and Haugh unit. In response to increasing BTW percentage, there were no differences in blood parameters except for albumen, triglyceride, alkaline phosphatase, and alanine aminotransferase levels. Malondialdehyde values in the egg yolks obtained from treatment groups fed diets containing BTW at different levels and stored for 14 and 28 days were lower than in those of the control group, but there were no differences at 56 days. Results of our study showed that supplementing diets of laying hens with different levels of water-treated BTW did not have adverse effects on either animal performance or egg quality parameters and resulted in strong antioxidative activity. Consequently, BTW may be used to replace up to 100% of wheat bran in the diets of laying hens, but the best outcomes are observed at 4% BTW level.

PURPOSE: To determine the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of alfa lipoic acid (ALA) on the liver injury induced by methotrexate (MTX) in rats.METHODS:Thirty two rats were randomly assigned into four equal groups; control, ALA, MTX and MTX with ALA groups. Liver injury was performed with a single dose of MTX (20 mg/kg) to groups 3 and 4. The ALA was administered intraperitonealy for five days in groups 2 and 4. The other rats received saline injection. At the sixth day the rats decapitated, blood and liver tissue samples were removed for TNF-α, IL-1β, malondialdehyde, glutathione, myeloperoxidase and sodium potassium-adenosine triphosphatase levels measurement and histological examination.RESULTS: MTX administration caused a significant decrease in tissue GSH, and tissue Na+, K+ ATPase activity and which was accompanied with significant increases in tissue MDA and MPO activity. Moreover the pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL- β) were significantly increased in the MTX group. On the other hand, ALA treatment reversed all these biochemical indices as well as histopathological alterations induced by MTX.CONCLUSION:Alfa lipoic acid ameliorates methotrexate induced oxidative damage of liver in rats with its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects.