Department of General Surgery, Ninth People's Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200011, China; E-Mails:
Int J Mol Sci. 2011;12(10):6529-43. doi: 10.3390/ijms12106529. Epub 2011 Oct 6.
Licorice has been used in Chinese folk medicine for the treatment of various disorders. Licorice has the biological capabilities of detoxication, antioxidation, and antiinfection. In this study, we evaluated the antihepatotoxic effect of licorice aqueous extract (LE) on the carbon tetrachloride (CCl(4))-induced liver injury in a rat model. Hepatic damage, as reveled by histology and the increased activities of serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activities, and decreased levels of serum total protein (TP), albumin (Alb) and globulin (G) were induced in rats by an administration of CCl(4) at 3 mL/kg b.w. (1:1 in groundnut oil). Licorice extract significantly inhibited the elevated AST, ALP and ALT activities and the decreased TP, Alb and G levels caused by CCl(4) intoxication. It also enhanced liver super oxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), glutathione reductase (GR), Glutathione S-transferase (GST) activities and glutathione (GSH) level, reduced malondialdehyde (MDA) level. Licorice extract still markedly reverses the increased liver hydroxyproline and serum TNF-α levels induced by CCl(4) intoxication. The data of this study support a chemopreventive potential of licorice extract against liver oxidative injury.
甘草在中国民间医学中被用于治疗各种疾病。甘草具有解毒、抗氧化和抗感染的生物学功能。在这项研究中，我们评估了甘草水提取物（LE）对 CCl4 诱导的大鼠肝损伤的抗肝毒性作用。CCl4（在花生油中 1：1）3 mL/kg 体重给药可导致大鼠肝损伤，表现为组织学变化和血清天冬氨酸转氨酶（AST）、丙氨酸转氨酶（ALT）、碱性磷酸酶（ALP）活性升高，血清总蛋白（TP）、白蛋白（Alb）和球蛋白（G）水平降低。甘草提取物显著抑制 CCl4 中毒引起的 AST、ALP 和 ALT 活性升高以及 TP、Alb 和 G 水平降低。它还增强了肝脏超氧化物歧化酶（SOD）、过氧化氢酶（CAT）、谷胱甘肽过氧化物酶（GSH-Px）、谷胱甘肽还原酶（GR）、谷胱甘肽 S-转移酶（GST）的活性和谷胱甘肽（GSH）水平，降低了丙二醛（MDA）水平。甘草提取物还明显逆转了 CCl4 中毒引起的肝羟脯氨酸和血清 TNF-α水平升高。本研究的数据支持甘草提取物对肝脏氧化损伤的化学预防潜力。
