ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE： To investigate the effects of crataegolic acid on inflammatory response and oxidative stress in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease （NAFLD） model mice induced by high-fat diet. METHODS： Totally 72 C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into normal group （normal saline）， model group （normal saline）， simvastatin group （positive control， 3 mg/kg） and crataegolic acid low-dose， medium-dose and high-dose groups （25， 50 and 100 mg/kg）， with 12 mice in each group. Normal group was standard feed， while other groups were given high-fat diet to induce NAFLD model . At the same time of modeling， rats in each group was given relevant dose of drugs intragastrically， once a day， for consecutive 12 weeks. 12 h after last administration， body weight and liver weight of mice were determined， and liver index was calculated. The changes of serum biochemical indexes （activities of AST， ALT and contents of HDL-C， LDL-C， TG， TC） were determined by fully automatic biochemical analyzer. The pathological changes of liver tissue were observed after HE staining. The changes of inflammatory response indexes （contents of NF-κB， TNF-α， IL-6） in liver tissue were determined by ELISA， and the changes of oxidant stress indexes （contents of MDA， SOD and activity of GSH-Px） were determined by spectrophotometry. RESULTS： Compared with normal group， the liver index of mice in model group was increased significantly （P＜0.05）. The serum content of HDL-C was decreased significantly， and the activities/contents of other serum biochemical indexes were increased significantly （P＜0.05）. The boundary of hepatic lobules was not clear， and the liver tissue had obvious pathological changes. Inflammatory response indexes and the contents of MDA were increased significantly in liver tissue （P＜0.05）， the activities of SOD and GSH-Px were decreased significantly （P＜0.05）. Compared with model group， except that the increase of SOD activity and the decrease of MDA content of liver tissue were not significantly in crataegolic acid low-dose group （P＞0.05）， while above indexes of mice in other administration groups were improved significantly （P＜0.05）. The globular lipid droplets and inflammatory cell infiltration were decreased in liver tissue. CONCLUSIONS： Crataegolic acid can effectively alleviate the degree of liver lesions in NAFLD model mice induced by high-fat die through anti-inflammatory and inhibiting oxidative stress.