Abstract
The combination of the garlic-derived amino acid, S-allyl-l-cysteine sulfoxide (ACSO), and ornithine or arginine on CCl4-induced hepatic injury was examined. After investigating the effectiveness of the mixture of ACSO and ornithine or arginine in preventing hepatic injury in vivo, an extract rich in ACSO and ornithine was prepared by converting arginine in garlic to ornithine by arginase from Hypsizygus marmoreus (buna-shimeji), after screening the productivity of ornithine among 12 kinds of mushrooms. Co-administration of ACSO with ornithine or arginine suppressed the increase in aspartate transaminase, alanine transaminase, and thiobarbituric acid reactive substance, and the decrease in glutathione S-transferase and cytochrome p450 2E1 activities after CCl4 injection more effectively than a single administration of ACSO. All extracts prepared from garlic and buna-shimeji with low and high contents of ACSO and arginine or ornithine significantly suppressed CCl4-induced hepatic injury in rats. Considering that ACSO is tasteless, odourless, and enhances taste, and ornithine has a flat or sweet taste and masks bitterness, the extract rich in ACSO and ornithine from garlic and buna-shimeji could be considered a potential antioxidant food material that can be added to many kinds of food to prevent hepatic injury.
Highlights
Oxidative stress is highly related to diseases such as cancer, vascular diseases, and Alzheimer’s disease [1,2,3]
The liver weight, aspartate transaminase (AST) and alanine transaminase (ALT) activities, and thiobarbituric acidreactive substance (TBARS) increased, whereas cytochrome p450 2E1 (CYP2E1) and glutathione S-transferase (GST) activities decreased in the distilled water (DW) group after the intraperitoneal injection of CCl4, which are typical changes observed in rats with CCl4-induced hepatic injury (Figures 1 and 2)
AST and ALT activities and TBARS in the allyl-L-cysteine sulfoxide (ACSO) + Arg and ACSO + Orn groups treated with CCl4 were lower than those in the ACSO group treated with CCl4
Summary
Oxidative stress is highly related to diseases such as cancer, vascular diseases, and Alzheimer’s disease [1,2,3]. When garlic is crushed or sliced, these sulphides, which are responsible for the characteristic garlic odour, are produced from an amino acid, S-allyl-L-cysteine sulfoxide (ACSO; known as alliin), by cysteine-S-conjugate β-lyase (C-S lyase), followed by spontaneous reactions of sulfenic acid [23] These sulphides show potent antioxidant effects, it is difficult to use them as food materials because they are volatile, hydrophobic, and have a strong odour. We have already shown that ACSO has antioxidant activity, induces antioxidative and detoxifying enzymes, and suppresses hepatic injury in rats [25] Another dominant amino acid in garlic is arginine, which is hydrolysed to ornithine by arginase. There is little scientific evidence that ornithine alleviates hepatic injury despite the common assumption of its function in Japan, ornithine aspartate, a stable salt, reportedly shows hepatoprotective activity against thioacetamide-induced hepatopathy [26]
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