Protective effects of Acanthopanax koreanum Kakai extract against carbon tetrachloride-induced liver injury in Sprague-Dawley rats

Yoon Kyoung Yang; Wang Lin; Oran Kwon

doi:10.4163/jnh.2014.47.2.106

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Yang, Lin, and Kwon: Protective effects of Acanthopanax koreanum Kakai extract against carbon tetrachloride-induced liver injury in Sprague-Dawley rats

Research Article

Journal of Nutrition and Health 2014; 47(2): 106-112.

Published online: 30 April 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4163/jnh.2014.47.2.106

Protective effects of Acanthopanax koreanum Kakai extract against carbon tetrachloride-induced liver injury in Sprague-Dawley rats

Yoon Kyoung Yang^1,^**, Wang Lin^2,^**, Oran Kwon²

¹Department of Nutritional Science and Food Management, Soongeui Women's College, Seoul 100-751, Korea.

²Department of Nutritional Science and Food Management, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 120-750, Korea.

To whom correspondence should be addressed. tel: +82-2-3277-6860, orank@ewha.ac.kr

Equal contributor:

**These authors contributed equally to this study.

Received 6 January 2014 Revised 5 February 2014 Accepted 3 March 2014

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose

This study was conducted in order to investigate the protective effects of ethanolic extract of Acanthopanax koreanum Nakai (AE) against carbon tetrachloride (CCl₄)-induced liver injury in rats.

Methods

Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into four groups in order to receive the following experimental diets with intraperitoneal injection of CCl₄ (2.0 mL/kg body weight, 20% solution 0.65 mL) for eight weeks (n = 8 per group): CCl₄ control (CON), CCl4 + AE 1% (AE1), CCl₄ + AE 3% (AE3), or CCl₄ + acanthoic acid 0.037%, which is equivalent to AE 3% (AA).

Results

Highest serum ALT activity and albumin level were observed in the CCL₄ control group, but showed a significant decrease by either AE or AA supplementation in a dose-dependent manner (p = 0.0063 and 0.0076, respectively). Both hemotoxylin and eosin staining and Masson's staining indicated remarkable prevention of CCl₄-induced liver damage in the AE3 group. TNFα and IL-6 production were significantly lowered in the AE treated groups, but not in the AA group (p = 0.0016 and p = 0.0002, respectively). The effects of AE3 were greater than those of AA for inflammation and liver toxicity biomarkers.

Conclusion

Taken together, the results suggested that ethanolic extract of Acanthopanax koreanum Nakai provided hepa-toprotective effects, leading to the reduction of inflammatory response. In addition, the effect of AE was superior to that of single compound AA.

Keywords: Acanthopanax koreanum Nakai, hepatoprotective effects, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-6

Figures and Tables

Fig. 1

Effects of AE or AA on changes of serum ALT, AST and albumin level in CCl₄-induced liver injury rats for 8 weeks. Data are presented as mean ± SE (n = 8/group). Values with different alphabets are significantly different among the groups at p < 0.05 by Duncan's multiple range test. CON, CCl₄-induced control; AE1, CCl₄ + 1% ethanolic extract of Acanthopanax koreanum Nakai; AE3, CCl₄ + 3% ethanolic extract of Acanthopanax koreanum Nakai; AA, CCl₄ + acanthoic acid.

Fig. 2

Histological findings of the liver tissue; (A) H&E staining, magnification ×200 and (B) Masson's trichrome staining, magnification ×200. CON, CCl₄-induced control, AE1, CCl₄ + 1% ethanolic extract of Acanthopanax koreanum Nakai, AE3, CCl₄ + 3% ethanolic extract of Acanthopanax koreanum Nakai and AA, CCl₄ + acanthoic acid. White arrows (A) fatty changes and (B) fibrosis (interbridging septa) Bars: (A)100 µm and (B) 500 µm.

Fig. 3

Effects of AE or AA on hepatic TNFα (A) and IL-6 (B) levels in CCl₄-induced liver injury rats for 8 weeks. Data are presented as mean ± SE (n = 8/group). Values with different alphabets are significantly different among the groups by post-hoc Duncan's multiple range test at α = 0.05 level after one way ANOVA. CON, CCl₄ control; AE1, CCl₄ + 1% ethanolic extract of Acanthopanax koreanum Nakai; AE3, CCl₄ + 3% ethanolic extract of Acanthopanax koreanum Nakai; AA, CCl₄ + acanthoic acid.

Fig. 4

Effects of AE or AA on hepatic SOD (A) and CAT (B) activities in CCl₄-induced liver injury rats for 8 weeks. Data are presented as mean ± SE (n = 8/group). Values with different alphabets are significantly different among the groups by post-hoc Duncan's multiple range test at α = 0.05 level after One way ANOVA. CON, CCl₄-induced control; AE1, CCl₄ + 1% ethanolic extract of Acanthopanax koreanum Nakai; AE3, CCl4 + 3% ethanolic extract of Acanthopanax koreanum Nakai; AA, CCl4 + acanthoic acid.

Table 1

Composition of experimental diets (unit: g/kg diet)

1) CON: CCl₄-induced control, AE: ethanolic extract of Acanthopanax Koreanum Nakai, AE1: CCl₄ + 1%AE, AE3: CCl₄ + 3%AE, AA: CCl₄ + Acanthoic acid 2) AIN-93G-MX (g/kg mixture): Anhydrous calcium carbonate, 357; monobasic potassium phosphate, 196; sodium chloride, 74; potassium sulfate, 46.6; Potassium citrate, tri-potassium monohydrate, 70.78; Magnesium oxide 24, ferric citrate, 6.06; Zinc carbonate,1.65; manganous carbonate, 0.63; cupric carbonate, 0.3; potassium iodate, 0.01; anhydrous sodium selenate, 0.01025; ammoniumparamolydrate 4-hydrate, 0.000795; sodium meta-silicate, 9-hydrate, 1.45; chromium potassium sulfate, 12-hydrate, 0.275; boric acid, 0.0815; sodium fluoride, 0.0635; nickel carbonate, 0.0318; lithium chloride, 0.0174; ammonium vanadate, 0.0066; powdered sucrose, 221.026 3) AIN-93-VX (g/kg mixture): nicotinic acid, 3; Ca-pantothenate 1.6; pyridoxine-HCl, 0.7; thiamin-HCl, 0.6; riboflavin, 0.6; folic acid, 0.2; D-Biotin, 0.02; Vitamin B12 (cyonocobalamin)(0.1% A in mannitol), 2.5; Vitamin E (all-rac-a-tocopheryl acetate)(500 IU/g), 15; Vitamin A (all-trans-retinylpalmitate; 500,000 IU/g), 0.8; Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol; 400,000 IU/g), 0.25; Vitamin K/dextrose mix (10 mg/g), 7.5; Powdered sucrose 967.23 4) Contents of AE: Carbohydrate, 60.44%; Crude protein, 11.97%; Crude fat, 1.70%; Calories, 304.94 kcal/100 g

Notes

This study was supported by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy [Regional Innovation System support program B0012328 supervised by the KIAT (Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology)].

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