Effects of Kamichunggantang on Lipoapoptosis and inflammation of NAFLD in db/db mice

Abstract

Kamichunggantang (KCGT) is a decoction of 9 herb aqueous extract, which is already proved its effectiveness in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) by ROS suppression and restrain HepG2 cell apoptosis as well as anti-fibrotic effect in liver. This study is designed to investigate the more specific effect of KCGT especially on NAFLD. This study was designed to investigate the effects of 30% ethanol KCGT extract on NAFLD in db/db mice. Nine-week-old male db/db mice were divided into four groups: saline-treated group, metformin-treated group, low dose KCGT-treated group, and high dose KCGT-treated group. The body weight, food intake, liver weight and white adipose tissue weight of the mice were checked as baseline characteristics. To identify the mechanism of the effect of KCGT, western blotting, which includes apoptosis-related protein (JNK, caspase 9) and inflammation-related protein (NFkB, iNOS, COX-2) were measured. Plasma AST and ALT levels of the KCGT-treated group were significantly decreased compared to those in other groups. In apoptosis-related proteins, p-JNK and cleaved caspase-9 expressions of the KCGT-treated groups were considerably decreased than that in the saline or metformin-treated group. In inflammation-related proteins, p-p65, iNOS and COX-2 expressions were noticeably decreased in the KCGT-treated groups than in the saline or metformin-treated group.