Key Laboratory of Marine Drugs, The Ministry of Education of China, School of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266237, China; Laboratory for Marine Drugs and Bioproducts of Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266237, China.
Open Studio for Druggability Research of Marine Natural Products, Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266237, China; State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201203, China.
Biomed Pharmacother. 2019 Sep;117:109190. doi: 10.1016/j.biopha.2019.109190. Epub 2019 Jul 4.
Le-Cao-Shi (LCS), a formula of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), has been used as a folk medicine for protection and treatment of liver injury. However, scientific evidences on its hepatoprotective effects have not been investigated. In this study, hepatoprotective activities of LCS water extracts (LCS-W) and ethanol extracts (LCS-E) against carbon tetrachloride (CCl)-induced liver damage were investigated in vivo and in vitro. In vivo experiments, pretreatment of LCS-W and LCS-E to rats significantly declined the levels of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and markedly increased the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and ameliorated the level of malondialdehyde (MDA) induced by CCl treatment. Especially, LCS-WM group significantly prevented the elevation of lipid peroxidation level induced by CCl with the MDA level closed to that of normal group. Histopathological examinations further confirmed that LCS-W and LCS-E could protect the liver cells from CCl-induced damage. In addition, immunohistochemically analysis revealed that LCS-W could significantly down-regulated the hepatic protein expression of necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β). Correspondingly, LCS-W and LCS-E were observed to promote cell viability and decline the levels of ALT, AST, and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in vitro. It could be concluded that LCS can exert a protective effect against CCl-induced hepatotoxicity, which might be a potential therapeutic prescription for preventing or treating liver injury. Notably, LCS-W displayed better hepatoprotective activity against CCl-induced injury than that of LCS-E, suggesting that LCS extracted by water decoction has good development prospects. Our results contribute towards the validation of the traditional use of LCS in the treatment of liver disorders.
乐草士（LCS），一种中药（TCM）配方，已被用作保护和治疗肝损伤的民间药物。然而，其对肝的保护作用的科学证据尚未得到研究。在这项研究中，我们体内和体外研究了 LCS 水提取物（LCS-W）和乙醇提取物（LCS-E）对四氯化碳（CCl）诱导的肝损伤的保肝活性。体内实验中，LCS-W 和 LCS-E 预处理大鼠可显著降低血清丙氨酸转氨酶（ALT）和天冬氨酸转氨酶（AST）水平，显著提高超氧化物歧化酶（SOD）活性，并改善 CCl 处理引起的丙二醛（MDA）水平。特别是，LCS-WM 组可显著防止 CCl 引起的脂质过氧化水平升高，MDA 水平接近正常组。组织病理学检查进一步证实，LCS-W 和 LCS-E 可保护肝细胞免受 CCl 诱导的损伤。此外，免疫组化分析表明，LCS-W 可显著下调肝组织坏死因子-α（TNF-α）和白细胞介素-1β（IL-1β）的蛋白表达。相应地，LCS-W 和 LCS-E 在体外可促进细胞活力，降低 ALT、AST 和乳酸脱氢酶（LDH）水平。综上所述，LCS 可发挥对 CCl 诱导的肝毒性的保护作用，这可能是预防或治疗肝损伤的潜在治疗处方。值得注意的是，LCS-W 对 CCl 诱导损伤的保肝活性优于 LCS-E，表明水提取的 LCS 具有良好的开发前景。我们的研究结果为 LCS 治疗肝脏疾病的传统用途提供了验证。
