ABSTRACT
The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of caffeine and retinoic acid as the active metabolite form of vitamin A on the liver at pre- and postnatal periods of development. In either the pre- or the postnatal period of study, caffeine was able to perturb carbohydrates, increase calcium and decrease iron those accompanied with dowenregulated expression of TGFβ2 in hepatic tissue as compared to control. Treatment with retinoic acid at both doses in the present study either separate or combined with caffeine upregulate calcium against suppression of iron. Moreover, TGFβ2 show biphasic that severely dowenregulated during gestation and extended to express intranuclear at postnatal in liver tissue. Decreased iron overload of liver with concomitant dowenregulation of TGFβ2 expression represent the most important points of this study that protect the liver of young age from oxidative damage and suppress the gene-dependent extracellular matrix deposition. These data may contribute to the therapeutic uses of these substances in preventing the progression of liver damage in hepatitis diseases.