ABSTRACT
Aim To investigate the potential protective effect of quercetin on chronic ethanol exposure induced autophagy dysfunction .Methods The male C57 BL/6 J mice were divided randomly into four groups: Nor-mal control group ( Con);Ethanol group ( Eth);Etha-nol plus Quercetin group ( Eth+Qu); Quercetin con-trol group ( Qu ) .The mice were pair-fed with either regular or ethanol-containing Lieber De Carli liquids diets for 15 weeks and the related parameters were as-sayed .Result Compared to Con group , chronic etha-nol feeding led to serious aminotransferases leakage , hepatic lipid accumulation , and liver oxidative dam-age.Additionally, long-term ethanol exposure caused lysosome damage , cathepsin B leakage to cytoplasm and decreased the expression of LAMP 2A which was the key protein for the autophagosome-lysosome fusion . As expect , quercetin supplementation evidently allevia-ted lysosome damage and decreased the abnormal LC 3-II and p62 accumulation , accelerated the autophago-some-lysosome fusion and increased the expression of LAMP2A.Conclusion Quercetin may alleviate the liver injury induced by chronic alcohol exposure by a-meliorating the lysosomal damage and up-regulating LAMP2 A expression .