Abstract
Phyllanthus virgatus, family Euphorbiaceae, is a plant traditionally employed for the treatment of several diseases in Thailand, especially for liver ailments. The mechanisms responsible for the hepatoprotective action of P. virgatus, however, are not well defined. In this study, the protection of P. virgatus extract on mitochondrial dysfunction induced by Cd2+ was examined with isolated rat liver mitochondria. It was found that the extract of P. virgatus at 80 to 240 μg/ml blocked the collapse of mitochondrial transmembrane potential induced by 5 μM CdCl2 in a dose-dependent manner. Similar results were also obtained with Ca2+-induced loss of mitochondrial membrane potential. Increasing the cation concentrations did not diminish this protective effect of the extract. The extract also inhibited Cd2+-induced cytochrome c release from mitochondria. Cd2+ has been suggested to cause mitochondrial damage by opening the permeability transition pore (PTP) after entering the mitochondria via Ca2+ uniporter. We therefore postulated that P. virgatus extract may act by blocking Ca2+ uniporter to impede Cd2+ influx into the mitochondria and/or by inhibiting the Cd2+-induced PTP opening.
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