Effects of zingiber alcohol extract on inflammation-associated cytokines in rat with carbon tetrachloride induced hepatic fibrosis / 重庆医学

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate effects of zingiber alcohol extract(ZGB)on the inflammation-associated cytokines in rats with carbon tetrachloride(CCL4)induced hepatic fibrosis.Methods 24 adult male SD rats were randomly divided into three groupsnormal control group(CON,n=8),hepatic fibrosis model group(HF,n=8),and zingiber administration group(ZGB,n=8).The rats in the HF and ZGB groups were administrated by subcutaneous injection of 50%CCL4 3 mL/kg,twice per week for 8 weeks,the first time dosage was doubled.At the same time the ZGB group received daily intragastric ZGB(300 mg/kg a day),while the CON and HF groups received daily intragastric isovolumic normal saline for 8 weeks.The animals were executed at the end of 8 weeks.Serum samples were collected for detecting the content of ALT,AST.The liver samples were used for assessing the Hyp content,detectingα-SMA level by Western blotting and TNFα,IL-1 b,IL-6 mRNA levels by the real-time PCR.The histological ob-servation of the liver tissue was done with HE stain.Results As compared with the HF group,the serum levels of ALT and AST in the ZGB group were markedly decreased,and the content of Hyp in liver tissue was decreased(P<0.05).The Western blot re-sults showed that the expression amount ofα-SMA protein in the ZGB group was significantly lower than that in the HF group(P<0.05);the real-time quatitative PCR showed that the expression levels of TNFα,IL-1b,IL-6 were decreased compared with the HF group(P<0.05).The hepatocyte degeneration degrees observed by the optical microscope in the ZGB group were significantly alle-viated compared with the HF group.Conclusion ZGB has better anti-hepatic fibrosis and hepatocyte-protective effect,one of its mechanisms could be that ZGB could reduce the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines TNFα,IL-1b and IL-6,thus delay or hinder the progress course of liver fibrosis.