Abstract
Accumulating evidence has suggested that oxidative stress and apoptosis are involved in the ageing process. D-galactose (gal) has been reported to cause symptoms of ageing in rats, accompanied by liver and brain injuries. Our study aimed to investigate the potential antioxidative, anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic effects of ellagic acid and to explore how these effects act on rats in a D-gal-induced ageing model. Ageing was induced by subcutaneous injection of D-gal (100 mg/kg/d for 8 weeks). Ellagic acid was simultaneously administered to the D-gal-induced ageing rats once daily by intragastric gavage. Finally, the mental condition, body weight, organ index, levels of inflammatory cytokines, antioxidative enzymes, and liver function, as well as the expression of pro- and anti-apoptotic proteins, were monitored. Our results showed that ellagic acid could improve the mental condition, body weight, organ index and significantly decrease the levels of inflammatory cytokines, normalize the activities of antioxidative enzymes, and modulate the expression of apoptotic protein in ageing rats. In conclusion, the results of this study illustrate that ellagic acid was suitable for the treatment of some ageing-associated problems, such as oxidative stress, and had beneficial effects for age-associated diseases.
Highlights
Accumulating evidence has suggested that oxidative stress and apoptosis are involved in the ageing process
Blood samples were collected from the vena cavas of rats under ether anaesthesia into heparin-coated microcapillaries
The results were calculated based on the absorbance levels of complex cytokine-antibodies, and the units of cytokines were described as pg/ml
Summary
Accumulating evidence has suggested that oxidative stress and apoptosis are involved in the ageing process. Our study aimed to investigate the potential antioxidative, anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic effects of ellagic acid and to explore how these effects act on rats in a D-gal-induced ageing model. The mental condition, body weight, organ index, levels of inflammatory cytokines, antioxidative enzymes, and liver function, as well as the expression of pro- and anti-apoptotic proteins, were monitored. Our results showed that ellagic acid could improve the mental condition, body weight, organ index and significantly decrease the levels of inflammatory cytokines, normalize the activities of antioxidative enzymes, and modulate the expression of apoptotic protein in ageing rats. Chronic administration of D-gal for a period of 6–10 weeks in rodents was reported to show an increased generation of free radicals in the liver and brain[9,10]. EA has long been considered to have anti-apoptosis and anti-inflammatory activities in many www.nature.com/scientificreports/
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