The Intervention and Mechanism of Action for Aloin against Subchronic Aflatoxin B1 Induced Hepatic Injury in Rats.

Hanyi Hua,Wenyi Zhang,Bin Hu,Jie Sheng,Yuliang Cheng,Yan Cui,Yahui Guo,He Qian

doi:10.3390/ijms222111620

Abstract

As a class of difurancoumarin compounds with similar structures, aflatoxins (AF) are commonly found in the environment, soil, and food crops. AF pose a serious threat to the health of humans, poultry, and livestock. This study aimed to investigate the neuroprotective effect and detailed mechanism of aloin on hepatic injury induced by subchronic AFB1 in rats. The result showed that aloin could significantly inhibit the decrease in food intake, body weight growth, immune organ index, and serum albumin content caused by long-term AFB1 exposure. Meanwhile, aloin reduced the level of serum liver function and improved renal swelling and pathological changes of liver tissue. Aloin could also inhibit liver lipid peroxidation and improve liver antioxidant capacity. Further investigation revealed that aloin inhibited the activity and expression of hepatic CYP1A2 and CYP3A4 and down-regulated IL-1β expression in subchronic AFB1-induced liver injury rats. The above study demonstrated that aloin played an important role in blocking or delaying the development process of subchronic AFB1-induced hepatotoxicity. Therefore, aloin is considered to have a potential role as a protective agent against AFB1.

Highlights

Aflatoxins (AF) are a class of difurancoumarin compounds with similar structures that are mainly produced by the metabolism of toxic Aspergillus parasitic and Aspergillus flavus [1]
Park et al [19] studied the effect of aloin on the LPS-induced inflammatory response in mouse macrophages using the LPS-induced inflammatory response as an experimental model, and the results showed that aloin reduces the production of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced NO and strongly inhibits the expression of the inducible nitric oxide synthase gene, reducing the inflammatory response of cells
We demonstrated that aloin could relieve anorexia caused by AFB1, and its daily average food intake was significantly higher than that of the vehicle group

Summary

Introduction

Aflatoxins (AF) are a class of difurancoumarin compounds with similar structures that are mainly produced by the metabolism of toxic Aspergillus parasitic and Aspergillus flavus [1]. From the chemical structure perspective, AF structures contain 1,2-benzopyrone and bisfuran rings. The former can enhance the toxicity of the latter. The first four are usually natural, the last two are formed by metabolic hydroxylation of AFB1 and AFB1 in vivo. AFB1 is the main existing form and has the highest toxicity ever. It was designated as a human class I carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as early as 1993 [2,3,4]. AFB1 is commonly found in the environment, soil, and food crops, and this seriously threatens the health of humans, poultry, and livestock

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