Red Sea Suberea mollis Sponge Extract Protects against CCl4-Induced Acute Liver Injury in Rats via an Antioxidant Mechanism.

Aymn T Abbas,Soad S Ali,Diaa T A Youssef,Lamiaa A Shaala,Umama A Abdel-Dayem,Esam I Azhar,Nagla A El-Shitany

doi:10.1155/2014/745606

Abstract

Recent studies have demonstrated that marine sponges and their active constituents exhibited several potential medical applications. This study aimed to evaluate the possible hepatoprotective role as well as the antioxidant effect of the Red Sea Suberea mollis sponge extract (SMSE) on carbon tetrachloride- (CCl4-) induced acute liver injury in rats. In vitro antioxidant activity of SMSE was evaluated by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl-hydrate (DPPH) assay. Rats were orally administered three different concentrations (100, 200, and 400 mg/kg) of SMSE and silymarin (100 mg/kg) along with CCl4 (1 mL/kg, i.p., every 72 hr) for 14 days. Plasma aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and total bilirubin were measured. Hepatic malondialdehyde (MDA), reduced glutathione (GSH), nitric oxide (NO), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and catalase (CAT) were also measured. Liver specimens were histopathologically examined. SMSE showed strong scavenging activity against free radicals in DPPH assay. SMSE significantly reduced liver enzyme activities. Moreover, SMSE significantly reduced hepatic MDA formation. In addition, SMSE restored GSH, NO, SOD, GPx, and CAT. The histopathological results confirmed these findings. The results of this study suggested a potent protective effect of the SMSE against CCl4-induced hepatic injury. This may be due to its antioxidant and radical scavenging activity.

Highlights

Hepatotoxicity is a prevalent problem worldwide and represents 38% of all hepatic problems [1]
The present study aims to evaluate the possible hepatoprotective effect of the Red Sea Suberea mollis sponge extract (SMSE) against carbon tetrachloride- (CCl4-)induced hepatotoxicity as compared to silymarin, the most commonly known hepatoprotective agent
Effect of SMSE and Silymarin on Liver Functions Measured as ALT, AST, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and Bilirubin

Summary

Introduction

Hepatotoxicity is a prevalent problem worldwide and represents 38% of all hepatic problems [1]. Hepatotoxicity using CCl4 is a common model used to measure the efficiency of several antihepatotoxic drugs [4]. 2dEa1mtaogetr[ic5h].loCroCml4eitshyclon(CveCrlt3e∙d) free radical and trichloromethylperoxy radical (CCl3OO∙). Both radicals covalently bond to cellular macromolecules, producing lipid peroxidation, protein degeneration, DNA damage, and apoptosis [4,5,6]. Marine sponges of the order Verongida, including genus Suberea, attracted the attention of chemists specializing in marine-derived natural products. They possess an unusual chemical structure due to large amounts of sterols and a lack of terpenes and typical brominated compounds associated with tyrosine [10]. Prenylated toluquinone, hydroquinones, and naphthoquinones are examples of marine-derived natural products with reported antioxidant activities [15,16,17,18]

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