Hepatoprotective effects of Dicliptera chinensis polysaccharides on dimethylnitrosamine-induced hepatic fibrosis rats and its underlying mechanism

Ethnopharmacological relevanceDicliptera chinensis is a traditional herbal medicine used anciently in China for hepatopathy treatment, especially in south areas. Our several studies have demonstrated that dicliptera chinensis polysaccharides (DCP), which has a markedly protective effects on chemistry-induced models of acute liver injury in rats. In this study, we further investigated the potentially hepatoprotective effect of dicliptera chinensis polysaccharides (DCP) on hepatic fibrosis (HF) rats induced by dimethylnitrosamine (DMN).Material and methodsThe 96 rats were randomly divided into six groups (n=16, per group), the normal control group intragastrically administrated normal saline, model control group intraperitoneally injected with 0.5% DMN solution at 1.6 mL per kg (three times a week); colchicine intragastrically administrated group (0.2  mg kg−1 d−1)+DMN-treated rats; DCP intragastrically administrated groups (100 mg kg−1 d−1, 200 mg kg−1 d−1, 300 mg kg−1 d−1)+DMN-treated rats. At the end of 8 weeks, all rats were sacrificed.ResultsPathological examination showed that high and medium doses of DCP presented remarkable effect in ameliorating hepatic fibrosis, alleviate the inflammation, necrosis and reduced collagen deposits. DCP effectively improved the liver function, as revealed in being lowered sero-enzyme levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), total bilirubin (TBIL) while increased albumin (ALB), and being reduced sero-concentrations of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6) in the HF rats. Additionally, the contents of hyaluronic acid (HA), collagen type Ⅳ (Ⅳ-C), type III precollagen (PCIII) and laminin (LN) in the hepatic tissue of HF rats were markedly decreased, whereas the expressions of transforming growth factor-β l (TGF-β l), collagen type I (Col- I), metal protease-1 (TIMP-1), nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) expression in the hepatic tissue were notably down-regulated.ConclusionDCP exerts effectively antagonistic activity on DMN-caused hepatotoxicity in HF rats, which the anti-fibrotic mechanisms are associated with regulating functionally serous enzymes, improving metabolic function and inhibiting inflammatory reaction in liver tissue.

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