Abstract: Objective: To discuss the influences of arecoline on liver function, by comparing the liver function indexes changes of oral cancer patients with history of betel chewing or not, and the liver injury of oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) mice model induced by arecoline. Methods: The liver function indexes of 50 oral cancer male cases with history of betel chewing or not, which included ALT, AST, ALP, TBIL, were detected by automatic biochemical analyzer. Forty-five mice were randomly divided into control group, drug withdrawal group, and constantly drug group. Each group had 15 mice. Drug withdrawal group and constantly drug group were fed with 1000 mg/L arecoline solution for 2 weeks, respectively. Then the drug withdrawal group was fed with aqua sterilis, while the constantly drug group was fed with arecoline solution for another 2 weeks. The control group was fed with aqua sterilis for 4 weeks. The liver function indexes which was the same as human in each group in different time-points (1, 2, 4week) were detected by the same method. The histopathological changes of mice livers were observed by HE staining. Results: Compared with the patients with no history of betel chewing, the AST and TBIL of patients with history of betel chewing increased significantly (P<0.05), while ALT and ALP had no significant change. Compared with the control group, as time prolonging, the ALT, AST, and ALP increased significantly (P<0.05) in the drug withdrawal group and constantly drug group. However, after arecoline was stopped for two weeks, ALT, AST, and ALP decreased significantly (P<0.05) in the drug withdrawal group, but TBIL showed no significant change. HE staining of each groups showed the liver injury. The injury of constantly drug group was more significant. Conclusion: The ingredients of betel quid damage liver, whose effective component may be arecoline.

Key words: Arecoline , Oral cancer , Liver function, Mice