Hepatoprotective activity of the total flavonoids from Rosa laevigata Michx fruit in mice treated by paracetamol

In the study, the protective activity of the total flavonoids (TFs) from Rosa laevigate Michx fruit was evaluated in paracetamol-induced liver damage in mice. TFs (50, 200 mg/kg) were administered via gavage daily for 5 days before paracetamol (400 mg/kg, i.v.) treatment. After the experiment, the levels of serum ALT (alanine aminotransferase), AST (aspartate aminotransferase) and MDA (malondialdehyde) were decreased by 78.42%, 70.85% and 30.52%, respectively, while SOD (superoxide dismutase) and GSH (reduced glutathione) were significantly increased compared with model group (p < 0.05). Further mechanisms study indicated that the TFs could significantly increase the protein expressions of Procaspase-3, Procaspase-8, FasL, Prohibitin and Bcl-2, and markedly decrease the protein expressions of Fas, Bax, p53 and NF-κB p65 compared with the mice treated by paracetamol. Meanwhile, the mRNA level of TNF-α was also down-regulated after the TFs treatment. Our results suggest that the TFs with a striking beneficial activity can be developed to be a potential hepatoprotective drug.