Antioxidant and hepatoprotective effect of Jatropha dioica against the valproic acid-induced damage in an in vivo model.

BACKGROUND

Understanding liver diseases is important worldwide due to their prevalence. Apart from liver disease arising from hepatitis C viral infection, most chronic liver diseases currently have no cure. Several therapeutic alternatives, including some natural products, have been proposed to treat liver diseases. The natural product Jatropha dioica has been reported to possess antioxidant activity and, by extension, could have hepatoprotective activity. Accordingly, our aim was to test the hypothesis that an extract of J. dioica is protective against liver damage induced by valproic acid (VPA).

METHODS

Twelve male and twelve female Wistar rats were sorted into four groups: control, non-toxicity, valproic acid control (VPA-C), and J. dioica + VPA (JdVPA). J. dioica (300 mg/kg, given orally) was used as treatment, followed by a concomitant injection of VPA (500 mg/kg, i.p.) for the first 4 days to induce liver injury. To evaluate the severity of the injury, liver function tests were performed. In addition, oxidative stress biomarkers were quantified, as well as measures of the expression of the genes Actb, Il6, and Nfkb1.

RESULTS

The VPA-C group showed a significant increase in alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and malondialdehyde (MDA), a decrease in superoxide dismutase (SOD), and a reduction in glutathione (GSH) vs the control group. The JdVPA group showed a significant decrease in ALT, AST, and MDA and an increase in GSH and SOD vs the VPA-C group. Gene expression of Il6 and Nfkb1 did not show any statistically significant differences between study groups. Histologically, VPA presented an inflammatory infiltrate, which decreased in the JdVPA group.

CONCLUSION

The extract of J. dioica at the administered dose did not display toxicity and was capable of ameliorating the liver injury generated by VPA in biochemical and oxidative stress biomarkers, which suggests its potential hepatoprotective activity.