Protective Effect of Ellagic Acid on Formaldehyde-induced Liver Injury in Mice
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Abstract:
In order to investigate the protective mechanism of ellagic acid against formaldehyde-induced liver injury in mice, 32 8-week-old male ICR mice were randomly divided into four groups: the control group (Con Group; normal saline), 333 mmol/L formaldehyde model group (FA Group; 333 mmol/L), ellagic acid low-dose group (33 mmol/L), and ellagic acid high-dose group (66 mmol/L). After 2 weeks of continuous gavage, the mice were dissected and the liver were collected for weighing, determining liver indices, observing the morphological changes of the liver, and analyzing the malondialdehyde content (MDA) content and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity in the liver. The expression levels of cytokines in the liver were detected by fluorescence quantitative PCR. Compared with the formaldehyde model group, the arrangement of hepatocytes was regular, and the number of vacuoles in the hepatocytes decreased in the liver tissues of the ellagic acid administration group. For the low-dose group, the SOD activity (0.97 U/mg) and the SOD1 (0.98) and SOD2 (0.98) expression levels increased, whilst the MDA content (38.51 nmol/mg) and the expression levels of NF-κB (0.78), IL-1β (0.63), IL-6 (0.87), TNF-α (0.85), Bax (0.70) and Caspase-3 (0.96) decreased. For the high-dose group, the SOD activity (1.16 U/mg) and the expression levels of SOD1 (1.23) and SOD2 (1.11) increased, whilst the MDA content (43.25 nmol/mg), and the expression levels of NF-κB (0.49), IL-1β (0.61), IL-6 (0.38), TNF-α (0.79), Bax (0.68) and Caspase-3 (0.93) decreased. The results showed that ellagic acid has a certain protective effect on formaldehyde-induced liver injury in mice through its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic properties.
