Abstract
Gastric ulcer is a major digestive disorder and provoked by multifactorial etiologies, including excessive alcohol consumption. In this study, we examined the gastroprotective effect of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Dioscorea batatas Decne (DBD; commonly called Chinese yam) flesh or peel against acidified ethanol-induced acute gastric damage in mice. Our findings demonstrated that oral supplementation of aqueous or ethanolic extracts of DBD flesh or peel before ulcer induction was significantly effective in macroscopically and histologically alleviating ethanol-induced pathological lesions in gastric mucosa, decreasing the plasma levels of inflammatory mediators, such as nitric oxide and interleukin-6, attenuating the gastric expression of cyclooxygenase-2, and increasing the gastric content of prostaglandin E2. In particular, pretreatment with the flesh extract prepared in 60% ethanol prominently decreased the expression of biomarkers of oxidative stress, including the plasma levels of 8-hydroxy-2-guanosine and malondialdehyde, and restored heme oxygenase-1 expression and superoxide dismutase activity in the stomach. Overall, these findings suggest that the oral supplementation with DBD extract, especially flesh ethanol extract, prior to excessive alcohol consumption, may exert a protective effect against ethanol-induced gastric mucosal damage in vivo, presumably through the activation of the antioxidant system and suppression of the inflammatory response.
Highlights
Gastric ulcers are provoked by multifactorial etiologies, such as Helicobacter pylori infection, stress, smoking, excessive intake of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and excessive alcohol consumption [1,2,3].In particular, ethanol is a damaging agent that causes an acute inflammatory response accompanied by oxidative damage of the cellular components in the gastric wall [4,5]
We evaluated the in vivo gastroprotective effects of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of the flesh or peel of Chinese yam and investigated underlying mechanisms in an ethanol-induced gastric ulcer mouse model
These macroscopic histological examinations vivo, male Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) mice pretreated with the extracts 3 and h prior to the induction of acute indicate water and ethanol extracts of DBDethanol
Summary
Ethanol is a damaging agent that causes an acute inflammatory response accompanied by oxidative damage of the cellular components in the gastric wall [4,5]. The damaged region usually exhibits upregulated expression of nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB), the master regulator of inflammatory responses, and its downstream enzyme cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) [6]. Extensive research has been carried out to identify the protective potentials of diverse herbs, vegetables, and plants against gastric ulcers [8,9,10]. Numerous plants, or their phytoconstituents, Nutrients 2018, 10, 1680; doi:10.3390/nu10111680 www.mdpi.com/journal/nutrients
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