Hepatoprotective effect of silymarin in cats

Dear Colleagues,

Milk thistle is a plant whose seeds contain silymarin, a flavonoid complex with hepatoprotective properties, which is composed of a mixture of several flavolignans such as silybin A, silybin B, silidianin, and silicristin, with silybin being the most active molecule.

The main action of silymarin is that it acts as a powerful antioxidant that neutralizes free radicals in the liver and therefore appears to protect liver cells, especially when they are exposed to toxins, whether from mycotoxins, medications, or other sources.

There are also several studies showing how silymarin is able to protect animals against fatty liver disease or against pro-oxidant metabolic overloads that drain the body of glutathione, a molecule produced mainly in the liver.

In addition to all this, silymarin is also capable of increasing protein synthesis in the liver by stimulating polymerase I and RNA transcription, resulting in a large increase in the production of new liver cells to replace those damaged by hepatotoxins.

An important fact to bear in mind about silymarin is its low availability, which is why we recommend working with formulas rich in silibin and with enhanced availability, as we do at Nutribiogenics with NBG Hepatoshield, a product containing silymarin enhanced with our exclusive NBG Bioboost technology:

Finally, we would like to mention that although there are studies on hepatoprotection in many animal species in which its hepatoprotective capacity is basically measured through the measurement of various liver enzymes such as alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP), on this occasion we have opted to study the hepatoprotective capacity of silymarin in cats exposed to paracetamol (acetaminophen).

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