Lycium Barbarum Polysaccharides and Wolfberry Juice Prevent DEHP-Induced Hepatotoxicity via PXR-Regulated Detoxification Pathway.

Huan Liu,Chunhong Liu,Shaowen Huang,Jie Yang,Ruijing Liu,Xiong Zhou

doi:10.3390/molecules26040859

Huan Liu, Chunhong Liu + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26040859

Copy DOI

Abstract

Environmental di(2-Ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is widely used in various industries as a plasticizer, and has been reported to induce reproductive and developmental toxicities in organisms. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the detoxification capacity of Lycium barbarum polysaccharides (LBP) and wolfberry juice (WJ) against DEHP-induced hepatotoxicity. Two groups of rats were purchased to study two different intervention method experiments: LBP (50, 100, 200 mg/kg·bw) intervention before DEHP (2000 mg/kg·bw) exposure, and LBP (200 mg/kg·bw) or WJ (8 mL/kg·bw) intervention after DEHP (3000 mg/kg·bw) exposure. The rats were exposed to DEHP once, while the intervention lasted for seven days. At the end of the intervention, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to measure the related index. The LBP intervention before DEHP exposure experiment (the first experimental method) found that LBP group rats showed a strong capacity toward DEHP detoxification, evidenced by the significant upregulation of activities and concentrations of the partner retinoid, X receptor alpha (RXRα), and downstream regulators Cytochrome P4502E1 (CYP2E1), Cytochrome P4503A1 (CYP3A1), Glutathione S-Transferase Pi (GSTpi), and UDP-glucuronosyltransferase 1 (UGT1) in a dose-dependent manner. The LBP and WJ intervention after DEHP exposure experiment (the second intervention experiment) found that WJ could downregulate pregnane X receptor (PXR), and upregulate downstream regulators, CYP2E1, CYP3A1, and Glutathione S-Transferase (GST) with the extension of intervention time, to alleviate the toxicity of DEHP. However, the intervention effect of WJ was more obvious than that of LBP. These results suggested that LBP and WJ might be effective detoxification agents against DEHP-induced toxic effects, by activating PXR and PXR-related detoxifying enzymes.

Highlights

Di(2-Ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is the most commonly used phthalate worldwide [1]
On the seventh day DEHP, and wolfberry juice (WJ) had markedly elevated Superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity compared with the control group (p < 0.01); the high-dose Lycium barbarum polysaccharides (LBP) intervention group (LBP-H) had significantly increased activity of SOD compared to the DEHP group (p < 0.01), while treatment with WJ had the opposite effect (p < 0.01)
On the third day the DEHP and LBP-H groups had significantly increased GSH-Px activity compared with the control group (p < 0.05), while WJ significantly decreased GSH-Px activity compared with the DEHP group (p

Summary

Introduction

Di(2-Ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is the most commonly used phthalate worldwide [1]. From Europe to Asia, DEHP is omnipresent and is commonly found in medical devices, household products, plastics, pharmaceutical preparations, food packaging, and industrial products. Since DEHP is toxic and ubiquitous in water, food, and air, it can be seen that it is very harmful to wildlife and human beings [2]. Di(2-Ethylhexyl) phthalate can disrupt endocrine function [3,4], and exposure to DEHP during the prenatal phase, infant phase, childhood, preadolescent phase, and post-adolescent phase causes severe harm to the body [5,6,7,8]. Taking the omnipresence and toxicity of DEHP into consideration, the detoxication of such a contaminant seems especially important

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Conclusion