Effects of Gynostemma Pentaphyllum on serum markers of liver fibrosis in cholesterol-induced non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in rabbits / 国际中医中药杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the effects of Gynostemma Pentaphyllum on serum markers of liver fibrosis in cholesterol-induced non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in rabbits. Methods Forty adult male white rabbits were randomly divided into a normal control group, a model group, a treatment group and a simvastatin group, with 10 rabbits in each group. NAFLD was induced with a high-cholesterol diet. After modeling, the rabbits in the treatment group were intragastrically administrated with Gynostemma Pentaphyllum 5 mg/(kg?d), the simvastatin group with simvastatin 5 mg/(kg?d), and the model and normal control groups with the equal volume of distilled water for 9 weeks. The serum levels of total cholesterol (TC) and triglyceride (TG), the serum inflammatory maker C-reactive protein (CRP), the serum markers of liver fibrosis such as hyaluronic acid and laminin (LN), and the TG level in the liver tissue were detected. Results Compared with the normal control group, the serum levels of TC (60.50 ± 9.77 mg/L vs.1.30 ± 0.44 mg/L), TG (1.72 ± 0.61 mmol/L vs. 0.85 ± 0.39 mmol/L), CRP (256.79 ± 30.78 mg/L vs. 8.71 ± 1.41 mg/L), HA (798.8 ± 69.4 ng/ml vs. 121.2 ± 6.8 ng/ml),LN (964.8 ± 62.8 ng/ml vs. 142.4 ± 12.2 ng/ml) in the model group were increased significantly (all P0.05). Conclusions Gynostemma Pentaphyllum may regulate lipid metabolism, alleviate inflammation, and decrease serum markers of liver fibrosis, and might protect against liver fibrosis in rabbits with NAFLD.