Pharmacognosy and Medicinal Plants Department, Faculty of Pharmacy for Girls, Al Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.
Cytology and Histology Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt.
Sci Rep. 2023 May 11;13(1):7635. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-34480-6.
Iron overload causes multiorgan dysfunction and serious damage. Alnus incana from the family Betulaceae, widely distributed in North America, is used for treating diseases. In this study, we investigated the iron chelating, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiapoptotic activities of the total and butanol extract from Alnus incana in iron-overloaded rats and identified the bioactive components in both extracts using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. We induced iron overload in the rats via six intramuscular injections of 12.5 mg iron dextran/100 g body weight for 30 days. The rats were then administered 60 mg ferrous sulfate /kg body weight once daily using a gastric tube. The total and butanol extracts were given orally, and the reference drug (deferoxamine) was administered subcutaneously for another month. After two months, we evaluated the biochemical, histopathological, histochemical, and immunohistochemical parameters. Iron overload significantly increased the serum iron level, liver biomarker activities, hepatic iron content, malondialdehyde, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, and caspase-3 levels. It also substantially (P < 0.05) reduced serum albumin, total protein, and total bilirubin content, and hepatic reduced glutathione levels. It caused severe histopathological alterations compared to the control rats, which were markedly (P < 0.05) ameliorated after treatment. The total extract exhibited significantly higher anti-inflammatory and antiapoptotic activities but lower antioxidant and iron-chelating activities than the butanol extract. Several polyphenolic compounds, including flavonoids and phenolic acids, were detected by ultraperformance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-ESI-QTOF-MS) analysis. Our findings suggest that both extracts might alleviate iron overload-induced hepatoxicity and other pathological conditions characterized by hepatic iron overload, including thalassemia and sickle-cell anemia.
铁过载会导致多器官功能障碍和严重损伤。来自桦木科的桤木，广泛分布于北美洲，用于治疗疾病。在这项研究中，我们研究了铁过载大鼠中来自桤木的总提取物和丁醇提取物的铁螯合、抗氧化、抗炎和抗凋亡活性，并使用液相色谱-质谱联用技术鉴定了这两种提取物中的生物活性成分。我们通过 30 天内给大鼠肌肉内注射 12.5mg 右旋糖酐铁/100g 体重 6 次诱导铁过载，然后每天通过胃管给予 60mg 硫酸亚铁/体重。总提取物和丁醇提取物口服给予，参考药物（去铁胺）皮下给予，再持续一个月。两个月后，我们评估了生化、组织病理学、组织化学和免疫组织化学参数。铁过载显著增加血清铁水平、肝生物标志物活性、肝铁含量、丙二醛、肿瘤坏死因子-α和半胱天冬酶-3 水平。它还显著降低血清白蛋白、总蛋白和总胆红素含量以及肝还原型谷胱甘肽水平。与对照组大鼠相比，它导致严重的组织病理学改变，经治疗后明显改善。总提取物表现出更高的抗炎和抗凋亡活性，但抗氧化和铁螯合活性低于丁醇提取物。通过超高效液相色谱-电喷雾电离-四极杆飞行时间质谱联用（UPLC-ESI-QTOF-MS）分析检测到几种多酚类化合物，包括黄酮类和酚酸类。我们的研究结果表明，这两种提取物可能缓解铁过载引起的肝毒性和其他肝脏铁过载特征的病理状况，包括地中海贫血和镰状细胞贫血。
