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Protective Effect of Fresh/Dry Dandelion Extracts on APAP-Overdose-Induced Acute Liver Injury

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Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objecitvie

To compare the liver protective activity of fresh/dried dandelion extracts against acetaminophen (APAP)-induced hepatotoxicity.

Methods

Totally 90 Kunming mice were randomly divided into 10 groups according to body weight (9 mice for each group). The mice in the normal control and model (vehicle control) groups were administered sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC-Na, 0.5%) only. Administration groups were pretreated with high and low-dose dry dandelion extract (1,000 or 500 g fresh herb dried and then decocted into 120 mL solution, DDE-H and DDE-L); low-, medium- and high-dose dandelion juice (250, 500, 1,000 g/120 mL, DJ-L, DJ-M, and DJ-H); fresh dandelions evaporation juice water (120 mL, DEJW); dry dandelion extract dissolved by pure water (1 kg/120 mL, DDED-PW); dry dandelion extract dissolved by DEJW (120 g/120 mL, DDED-DEJW) by oral gavage for 7 days at the dosage of 0.5 mL solution/10 g body weight; after that, except normal control group, all other groups were intraperitonealy injected with 350 mg/kg APAP to induce liver injury. Twenty hours after APAP administration, serum and liver tissue were collected and serum alanine aminotransferase (AST), aspartate transaminase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (AKP), malondialdehyde (MDA), glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities were quantified by biochemical kits; tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α), interleukin (IL)-2, and IL-1 β contents in liver tissue were determined by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay kits. Histopathological changes in liver tissues were observed by hematoxylin and eosin staining; TUNEL Assay and Hoechst 33258 staining were applied for cell apoptosis evaluation. The expressions of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), nuclear factor erythroid-2-related factor 2 (Nrf-2), caspase-9, B-cell leukemia/lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2), Bax and p-JNK were determined by Western blot analysis.

Results

Pretreatment with fresh dandelion juice (FDJ, including DJ-L, DJ-M, DJ-H, DEJW and DDED-DEJW) significantly decreased the levels of serum ALT, AST, AKP, TNF-α and IL-1β compared with vehicle control group (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Additionally, compared with the vehicle control group, FDJ decreased the levels of hepatic MDA and restored GSH levels and SOD activity in livers (P<0.05 or P<0.01). FDJ inhibited the overexpression of pro-inflammatory factors including cyclooxygenase-2 and inducible nitric oxide synthase in the liver tissues (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Furthermore, Western blot analysis revealed that FDJ pretreatment inhibited activation of apoptotic signaling pathways via decreasing of Bax, and caspase-9 and JNK protein expression, and inhibited activation of JNK pathway (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Liver histopathological observation provided further evidence that FDJ pretreatment significantly inhibited APAP-induced hepatocyte necrosis, inflammatory cell infiltration and congestion.

Conclusions

FDJ pretreatment protects against APAP-induced hepatic injury by activating the Nrf-2/HO-1 pathway and inhibition of the intrinsic apoptosis pathway, and the effect of fresh dandelion extracts was superior to dried dandelion extracts in APAP hepatotoxicity model mice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Pharmaceutical Science, South-Central University for Nationalities, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Yao Zheng, Lei Lei, Shuai Liang, Jiao Ai, Xin Deng, Yan-qiu Li, Tian-pei Zhang & Yong-shen Ren

  2. College of Chinese Materia Medica, Yunnan University of Chinese Medicine, Kunming, 650500, China

    Shi-biao Pu

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  1. Yao Zheng
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  2. Lei Lei
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  3. Shuai Liang
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  4. Jiao Ai
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  5. Xin Deng
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  6. Yan-qiu Li
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  7. Tian-pei Zhang
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Contributions

Ren YS and Zheng Y contributed to the research conception and design. Zheng Y, Lei L and Liang S were responsible for data collection and analyses. Zheng Y, Ren YS, Ai J, Deng X, Li YQ, Zhang TP and Pu SB participated in manuscript preparation and review. All authors contributed to the scientific discussion of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yong-shen Ren.

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.81773893, 81760812), National Major Scientific and Technological Special Project for “Significant New Drugs Development” (No. 2017ZX09301060-001), Jiangxi Province “Thousand Talents Plan” of Scientific and Technological Innovation (No. JXSQ2019201105), and Yunnan Province “Ten Thousand Talents” Special Support Plan (No. YNWR-QNBJ-2018-190)

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Zheng, Y., Lei, L., Liang, S. et al. Protective Effect of Fresh/Dry Dandelion Extracts on APAP-Overdose-Induced Acute Liver Injury. Chin. J. Integr. Med. 28, 683–692 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11655-021-3295-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11655-021-3295-8

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