Abstract
Context: Mentha longifolia L. (Lamiaceae), a traditional Iranian plant, possesses antimicrobial and antioxidant activities.Objective: We investigated the potential protective effects of M. longifolia essential oils (E.Os) on caecal ligation and puncture (CLP) induced liver injury.Materials and methods: Wistar Albino rats (n = 50) were grouped as follows: (1) a laparotomy group (LAP); (2) a CLP group (CLP); (3) the treatment groups received orally the E.Os (50 and 100 mg/kg b.w) and indomethacin (2 mg/kg b.w) for 2 weeks. The oxidative stress parameters, liver enzymes and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) level were measured in liver and plasma tissues. The liver was also harvested for the real time PCR of cyclooxygenase (COX-2) expression following histopathological examinations.Results: The results indicated that the CLP operation significantly increased lipid peroxidation (LP) [1.79-fold], myeloperoxidase (MPO) [2.76-fold], PGE2 [1.56-fold] besides plasma aspartate aminotransferase (AST) [2.4-fold] and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activities [2.22-fold], while, markedly reduced glutathione (GSH) [0.63-fold] and ferric reducing ability of plasma (FRAP) levels [0.63-fold]. Even COX2 expression significantly increased in the CLP group as compared to the LAP group. Treatments of rats with the E.Os could return all the hepatic and plasma biomarkers to the normal levels. These results were further confirmed by pathological examination on liver indicating that E.Os could successfully improve the CLP-induced liver injuries.Discussion and conclusions: Our findings suggest that E.Os is able to protect liver injuries against sepsis via modulating the oxidative stress parameters concomitant with the suppression of inflammatory reactions such as PGE2 and COX-2.
Highlights
Sepsis refers to a complexity of traumatic injury that develops in one-half of all patients suffering from trauma (Vincent 2000; Angus et al 2001; Singer et al 2016)
Based on the GC/MS analyses, 21 known compounds were identified in the essential oil samples extracted from Mentha longifolia (Table 3)
When compared to a standard antioxidant agent, it revealed that the essential oils from M. longifolia have strong radical scavenging activity
Summary
Sepsis refers to a complexity of traumatic injury that develops in one-half of all patients suffering from trauma (Vincent 2000; Angus et al 2001; Singer et al 2016). A severe sepsis is caused via release of different inflammatory mediators which often induce deleterious effects in the hosts. Immune system attacks the body’s own tissues and organs due to bacterial toxins that eventually cause a severe sepsis. Any harmful event that causes harm to tissues such as trauma, infection or anoxia eventually leads to cytokine secretion. Inflammatory cells activated through these cytokines abundantly release the toxic oxidizing reactive oxygen species (ROS). This event causes cellular injury through different mechanisms involving increase of myleoperoxidase (MPO) activity, the peroxidation of membrane lipids and reducing the glutathione (GSH) levels (Hubbard et al 2005; Fatemi et al 2010). Several reports indicate that herbal and antioxidant drugs induce their antioxidant characteristic via being oxygen-free radical’s scavenger (Huh et al 1994; Gomez-Zubeldia et al 2000)
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