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Protective effect of <i>Radix Bupleuri</i> extract against liver cirrhosis in rats


Wan-he Tang
Quan-wei Yang
Liu Xiao
Geng Zhang
Zuo-wei Hu
Jing-ling Tan

Abstract

Purpose: To explore the effect of Radix Bupleuri extract (RBE) on diethylnitrosamine (DEN)-induced liver cirrhosis in rats.

Methods: Rats were injected with DEN once a week for 8 weeks to induce liver cirrhosis. Some DENinduced rats were also treated with RBE, which was obtained by extracting dried Radix Bupleuri in water, for 8 weeks. Afterwards, biochemical indices and oxidative stress markers were assessed.

Results: RBE significantly decreased serum concentrations of both alanine transaminase (137.3 ± 4.4 U/L, p < 0.01) and aspartate aminotransaminase (152.1 ± 3.4 U/L, p < 0.01) in DEN-induced rats at week 8. In addition, RBE significantly decreased malondialdehyde (0.13 ± 0.02 umol/L, p < 0.01) and superoxide dismutase (0.73 ± 0.04 U/mg protein, p < 0.01) levels in DEN-induced rats (p < 0.01).

Conclusion: RBE exhibits a protective effect against DEN-induced liver cirrhosis in rats. Thus, it may have the potential to be used to treat liver cirrhosis in clinical settings.

Keywords: Radix Bupleuri, Liver cirrhosis, Anti-oxidant, Diethylnitrosamine, Alanine transaminase, Aspartate aminotransaminase


Journal Identifiers


eISSN: 1596-9827
print ISSN: 1596-5996