Background and Objectives: Acrylamide is a reactive compound that its hepatic metabolism causes toxic affects through oxidative stress in the body. No study has so far evaluated the effect of lemon as a fruit with antioxidant compounds on the toxic effects of AA. The present study surveyed the effect of fresh lemon juice and acrylamide on oxidative stress and liver enzymes in rats.

Materials and Methods: The current intervention-experimental study was done on 40 adult Wistar rats. Acrylamide (35mg/kg) was gavaged to both the control and intervention groups for two weeks. Fresh lemon juice (2.5, 5.0, and 7.5 ml/kg/day) was gavaged to the intervention group for 28 days. At the end of the study, after deep anesthesia and collecting the serum and liver samples, the levels of serum and liver TAC and MDA and serum ALT, AST and ALP were determined. Data were analyzed statistically by Independent samples t-test and One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) followed by Tukey’s test using SPSS18.

Results: In this study, AA led to increased levels of serum and liver MDA and decreased levels of serum and liver TAC significantly (p<0.05). Fresh lemon juice improved the levels of serum and liver MDA and TAC in comparison to the control group (p<0.05). AA only effected on the serum ALT levels (P=0.041), and medium and high doses of fresh lemon juice decreased serum ALT levels (P=0.017)(P=0.003).

Discussion: If confirmed in future studies, this study suggests consumption of fresh lemon juice as a suitable option to suppress oxidative stress caused by AA in serum and liver and reduce aminotraspherase levels.

Keywords: Lemon, Acrylamide, Hepatotoxicity, Oxidative stress, Liver enzymes, Rat