Protective Effects of Antrodia Cinnamomea on Chronic Liver Injury Induced by Carbon Tetrachloride in Rats
Article
Figures
Metrics
Preview PDF
Reference
Related
Cited by
Materials
Abstract:
The protective effects of Antrodia cinnamomea(AC) on the chronic liver injury induced by carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) in rats were investigated in this study. First of all, male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into six groups: normal group, model group, low-dose of AC group (30 mg/kg), middle-dose of AC group (60 mg/kg), high-dose of AC group (120 mg/kg) and colchicine positive control group (0.1 mg/kg). Subsequently, in order to establish the model of chronic liver injury, all groups, except for the normal group, were injected intraperitoneally (i.p.) with 50% CCl4 (CCl4: olive oil= 1:1; V/V) at 1ml/kg body weight twice a week for 9 weeks. At the same time, AC groups and positive group were treated with the corresponding drugs once daily for 9 weeks. Correspondingly, the normal group and model group were gavaged with equal volume of distilled water once daily for 9 weeks. The rats were sacrificed and the activity of alanine amiotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) in the serum were measured.; the activity of the superoxide dismutase (SOD), malondialdehyde (MDA), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and glutathione (GSH) in the liver tissue were measured. The indexes of the organ were calculated. The pathological changes of liver tissue in rats were observed by HE staining. The results showed that, compared with the model group, AC could significantly improve the pathological changes of the liver, and could significantly reduce the activity of ALT and AST in the serum of rats with chronic liver injury induced by CCl4 (p<0.01). Meanwhile , the activity of SOD, GSH-Px and GSH in the liver homogenate supernatant were significantly increased in high dose group, but the level of MDA was sharply declined in high dose group (p<0.05, p<0.01). Therefore, it was concluded that Antrodia cinnamomea had an obvious protective effect on chronic liver injury induced by CCl4 in rats.
