Table 1.
Histopathological findings in the liver of rats (chronic toxicity study). Figures given are numbers of animals out of 26 rats per treatment and sex
| Astaxanthin intended (mg/kg bw) | 0 (control) | 0 (Placebo) | 125 | 250 | 500 | 1,000 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M | F | M | F | M | F | M | F | M | F | M | F | |
| Yellow‐brown pigmentation hepatocytes | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 23 | 2 | 25 | 10 | 26 | 10 | 23 |
| Yellow‐brown pigmentation macrophages | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 20 | 4 | 24 | 2 | 22 |
| Hepatocellular hypertrophy | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 13 |
| Inflammatory foci | 3 | 4 | 9 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 11 |
| Vacuolation1 | 9 | 12 | 8 | 11 | 10 | 6 | 11 | 15 | 6 | 14 | 12 | 11 |
| Multinucleated cells/cytomegalic hepatocytes | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 7 |
1
Periportal, diffuse and centrilobular hepatocytes.