Protective effect of Hedyotis diffusa on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)‐induced liver damage

Abstract

Oxidative stress is a common mechanism of liver injury. The purpose of this study is to investigate hepatoprotective effects of Hedyotis diffusa (HD) against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)‐induced liver damage in rats. Male Sprague‐Dawley rats (BW 150–170 g, n=21) were divided in to three groups. Normal group and LPS group were fed AIN‐93G diet, whereas LPS‐HD group was offered Ain‐93G diet containing 1% ethanol extract of HD for 4 weeks. Normal group were injected saline (0.5 mL/kg BW, i.p.). LPS and LPS‐HD group were injected LPS (6 mg/kg BW, i.p.). Rats were sacrificed 4 hours after the injection of saline or LPS and blood and liver samples were collected. Serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activities were measured. Hepatic thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) levels and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities were measured. Serum AST and ALT activities of LPS‐HD group were significantly lower than those of LPS group. Consumption of Hedyotis diffusa significantly decreased hepatic TBARS levels compared with LPS group. Hepatic SOD activities were significantly increased by consumption of Hedyotis diffusa compared with LPS group. Thus we conclude that Hedyotis diffusa could exert protective effect against LPS‐induced liver damage in rats, at least partially due to antioxidant activity. This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2010–0011980).