Ameliorative Effects of Lycopene against Boldenone Undecylenate Toxicity in Albino Rats

Although anabolic androgenic steroids like boldenone (BOL) may increase lean muscle mass, strength, and the ability to train longer and harder, the serious side effects of steroid are many and may not be reversible. So, the present study was designed to investigate the role of lycopene in improving the oxidative stress of boldenone in male albino rats. Twenty eight male adult rats were equally divided into four groups.1st group (control) that received olive oil once a week (5 mg/kg intramuscularly). 2nd group includes rats received lycopene daily (orally, 60mg/kg body weight). 3rd group includes animals that received intramuscular injections of boldenone once a week (5 mg/Kg body weight). 4th group was co-treated with boldenone and lycopene with the same previous doses of both, the experiment extended for 5 weeks. Intramuscular injection of rats with caused significant increase in total weight gain (TWG), serum total protein and globulin, malandialdehyde (MDA), Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), creatinine kinase (CK), total protein in skeletal muscle, when compared with the control group. On the other hand, a significant decrease in albumin, Albumin/Globulin (AG) ratio and superoxide dismutase (SOD) in boldenone group when compared with the control group. Also, the result of rats administered lycopene plus Boldenone (group4) showed marked improvement in all tested parameters, these findings may be attributed to that Lycopene has an effect on regulation of intracellular gap- junction communication, genes function regulation, modulation of various metabolic pathways of xenobiotic, hormone and immune modulation. These findings suggested that misuse of boldenone may contribute to a continuous tissue damage, so young people -especially- should be careful if they want to use boldenone to enhance their strength and endurance or if they want to use it in the farm animal as growth promoter. This showed that the desired dose of boldenone can safely be used with lycopene in improving the oxidative stress of boldenone.