Abstract
Dioscorea villosa, commonly known as “Wild Yam” and native to North America, is well documented for its pharmacological properties due to the presence of steroidal glycosides. However, the hepatoprotective potential of these compounds has not been studied so far. The present investigation was aimed to study the hepatoprotective effect of the steroidal glycosides from D. villosa against H2O2, a known hepatotoxin, in human liver cell line (HepG2). Cytotoxicity assessment was carried out in cells exposed to various concentrations (10–50 μM) of compounds for 24 h using MTT assay and morphological changes. All tested compounds were known and among them, spirostans (zingiberensis saponin I, dioscin, deltonin and progenin III) were found to be cytotoxic whereas, furostans (huangjiangsu A, pseudoprotodioscin, methyl protobioside, protodioscin, and protodeltonin) were non-cytotoxic. Further, HepG2 cells were pretreated with biologically safe concentrations (10, 30, and 50 μM) of non-cytotoxic compounds and then cytotoxic (0.25 mM) concentration of H2O2. After 24 h, cell viability was assessed by MTT and NRU assays, while morphological changes were observed under the microscope. The results showed that treatment of HepG2 cells with compounds prior to H2O2 exposure effectively increased cell viability in a concentration-dependent manner. Furthermore, huangjiangsu A, pseudoprotodioscin, methyl protobioside, protodioscin, and protodeltonin at 50 μM increased GSH level and decreased intracellular ROS generation against H2O2-induced damages. The results from this study revealed that compounds isolated from D. villosa have hepatoprotective potential against H2O2-induced cytotoxicity and ROS generation and could be promising as potential therapeutic agents for liver diseases.
Highlights
The liver is the largest glandular organ, and plays a key role in the regulation of various physiological processes in the human body (Bechmann et al, 2012)
The present study demonstrated the cytotoxic and cytoprotective potential of selected steroidal glycosides, i.e., zingiberensis saponin I, dioscin, deltonin, progenin III, huangjiangsu A, pseudoprotodioscin, methyl protobioside, protodioscin, and protodeltonin, isolated from D. villosa
Results from the present study suggest that the constituents of D. villosa can protect HepG2 cells against H2O2-induced oxidative damage through antioxidant activity
Summary
The liver is the largest glandular organ, and plays a key role in the regulation of various physiological processes in the human body (Bechmann et al, 2012). It is the most important site of intermediary metabolism responsible for the detoxification and excretion of various substances like xenobiotics by altering and expelling toxins and wastes (Chaudhari and Mahajan, 2016). Due to the fact that the available drugs can cause damage to healthy hepatic cells, the new researches have been focused to protect hepatic diseases and reduce adverse side effects by using natural compounds isolated from the plants. It has been reported that pure compounds and extracts from plants possess good antioxidant activity against chemically induced liver damage (Pereira et al, 2016)
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