Abstract
Purpose: To determine the protective effect of puerarin against acute liver injury in septic rats, and the mechanism involved.Methods: Eighty-seven Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were assigned to control, sepsis and puerarin groups (each having 29 rats). Serum levels of NF-kB, TNF-α, IL-1 β, IL-6, ALT and AST were assayed. Liver lesions and levels of NO, SOD, iNOS and malondialdehyde (MDA) were measured using standard procedures.Results: Compared with the control group, the levels of NF-kB, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, AST, ALT, NO, MDA and iNOS significantly increased in the sepsis group, while SOD level decreased significantly. In contrast, there were marked decreases in NF-kB, TNF-α, IL-1β, AST, ALT, NO, MDA and iNOS in puerarin group, relative to the sepsis group, while SOD expression level was significantly increased (p <0.05). The level of p-p38 in liver of septic rats was up-regulated, relative to control rats, while Nrf2 significantly decreased (p < 0.05). The expression level of p-p38 in the puerarin group was significantly decreased, relative to the sepsis group, while the expression level of Nrf2 significantly increased (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Puerarin mitigates acute liver injury in septic rats by inhibiting NF-kB and p38 signaling pathway, down-regulating proinflammatory factors, and suppressing oxidative stress. Thus, puerarin may be developed for use in the treatment liver injury.
Highlights
Sepsis, a systemic inflammatory response syndrome, is one of the serious complications of life-threatening diseases such as severe infection, shock and trauma
Sepsis causes early liver injury, decreased liver function and liver cell damage which result in multiple organ failure [3]
AST and ALT levels in the puerarin group were significantly decreased at all periods, when compared with septic group (Table 2)
Summary
A systemic inflammatory response syndrome, is one of the serious complications of life-threatening diseases such as severe infection, shock and trauma It is a disease diagnosed frequently in hospital intensive care units. This research was carried out to investigate the influence of puerarin on acute liver injury in rats with sepsis. Following sacrifice of the rats, the liver tissues were excised and routinely processed into paraffin sections, dewaxed with xylene, hydrated with gradient alcohol, and subjected to hematoxylin staining for 15 min, followed by staining with eosin dye for 3 min. The protein expression levels of p-p38 and nuclear factor E2 p45-related factor (NRF2) in liver tissues of each group were determined using Western blotting. Differences between two groups with respect to measurement data for serum inflammatory factors, oxidative stress, biochemical indices and other indices, were statistically evaluated with independent sample ttest. Results of statistical analysis were considered significant at p < 0.5
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