Hepatoprotective effect and metabonomics studies of radix gentianae in rats with acute liver injury

Abstract

Context

As a well-known traditional Chinese medicine for protecting the liver, the mechanism of Radix Gentianae (RG) remains unclear.

Objective

The hepatoprotective effect and metabonomics of RG were studied to explore the molecular and metabolic mechanisms of RG protecting the liver.

Materials and methods

Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into control and model group (n = 10, orally given distilled water), intervention group (4 subgroups, n = 10, prophylactically and orally given 0.63, 2.5 and 5.6 g/kg RG and 0.2 g/kg bifendatatum for 7 d). On day 7 of the intervention, all rats except the control were injected intraperitoneally with 2.5% carbon tetrachloride vegetable oil solution (1.5 mL/kg) to induce liver injury. After 24 h of carbon tetrachloride injection, rat serum and liver tissue were collected for determining AST, ALT, TNF-α, MCP-1, IL-6, SOD, MDA, GSH, and GSH-PX. Rat serum was used for analysing endogenous metabolism by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS.

Results

Different doses of RG can significantly decrease the levels of AST, ALT, TNF-α, MCP-1, IL-6 and MDA, and increase the levels of SOD, GSH, and GSH-PX in rats with liver injury (p < 0.05; TNF-α, and IL-6, p < 0.05 only at 5.6 g/kg dose). Eight biomarkers of liver injury were obtained in serum metabonomics, involving five significant metabolic pathways. RG can improve steroid biosynthesis, linoleic acid metabolism, porphyrin and chlorophyll metabolism, and fatty acid biosynthesis.

Conclusion

RG demonstrated a good ability to protect the liver and improving endogenous metabolism in rats with liver injury. This can help us understand the mechanism of RG and more clinical verifications were inspired.

Keywords:

• Gentiana
• pharmacodynamics
• molecular mechanism
• metabolic mechanism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the Natural Foundation Support Program of Liaoning Province (number: 1552377126083). The funding source had no involvement in the study design and the decision to submit the article for publication.