Lauric acid attenuates hepato-metabolic complications and molecular alterations in high-fat diet-induced nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in rats

Abstract

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has emerged as a major chronic liver illness characterized by increase of lipid content in the liver. This study investigated the role of lauric acid to treat NAFLD in male adult Sprague Dawley rats. In this study, to induce NAFLD in the rats, a high-fat diet (HFD) was administered for eight consecutive weeks. Lauric acid groups received lauric acid (250 and 500 mg/kg; orally), concurrently with HFD for eight consecutive weeks. Lauric acid could ameliorate the serum levels of TG, TC, ALT, AST, blood glucose, and insulin. Moreover, lauric acid significantly elevated the levels of SOD, GSH, catalase, and IL-10. Additionally, it lowered the hepatic levels of MDA, ROS, MPO, 4-HNE, interleukin (IL)-1β, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α). Furthermore, lauric acid significantly up-regulated the hepatic expression of IRS1, AMPK, PI3K, and SIRT1 genes. In parallel, lauric acid could improve the histopathological picture of the liver and reduce the liver apoptosis via decreasing the expression of annexin V (Anx V). Finally, our data proposed that lauric acid could be an effective candidate for the NAFLD treatment.

Keywords:

• NAFLD
• HFD
• lauric acid
• liver
• annexin V
• AMPK

Authors’ contributions

Conception: Ahmed A. Sedik, Rania Elgohary, Methodology: Ahmed A. Sedik, Rania Elgohary, Eman Khalifa, Wagdy K. B. Khalil, Heba I. Shafey, Mohamed B. Shalaby, Mona S. O. Gouida, Yasmin M Tag, Writing orginal draft: Ahmed A. Sedik, Rania Elgohary, Eman Khalifa, Wagdy K. B. Khalil, Heba I. Shafey, Mohamed B. Shalaby, Mona S. O. Gouida, Yasmin M Tag, writing and reviewing the final draft: Ahmed A. Sedik, Rania Elgohary. All authors have read and approve the manuscript.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

All experimental procedures were conducted following the recommendations of the National Institutes of Health Guide for Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (NIH Publications No. 8023, revised 1978) and after the approval of the National Research Centre–Medical Research Ethics Committee (NRC-MREC) for the use of animal subjects (Approval no. 3411022023).

Disclosure statement

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

Availability of data and materials

All data are available upon request from the corresponding author.