Acetaminophen is one of the most widely used drugs in pain treatment. However, high dose of this drug may cause hepatorenal toxicity. The purpose of present research was to investigate the effects of pre-treatment with Lactobacillus casei (ATCC: 39392) on acetaminophen-induced toxicity in male rats. We randomly allocated twenty male Wistar rats to four groups of five. One control group that received saline, one acetaminophen group that received single high dose of this drug, one probiotic group that received L. casei for 21 days, and one experimental group that after 21 days treatment with the bacterium received a single high-dose acetaminophen. Twenty-four hours after the acetaminophen injection (day 22), all the animals were deeply anesthetised, and their serum were harvested for later analysis. The results showed that single high-dose acetaminophen could induce hepatorenal toxicity. This was showed with high levels of aminotransferases, urea, and creatinine in the serum of the rats. Moreover, pre-treatment with this strain of L. casei could prevent of renal but not liver toxicity in Wistar rats. The reason was the significantly lower levels of urea and creatinine in the rats that received pre-treatment of the bacterium before receiving the high-dose acetaminophen compared to the acetaminophen group. The bacterium by itself had no significant effect on liver enzymes, urea and creatinine. In conclusion, this bacterium may be useful to prevent renal toxicity by high doses of acetaminophen.
