Protective Effect of a Mixture of Astragalus membranaceus and Lithospermum erythrorhizon Extract against Hepatic Steatosis in High Fat Diet‐Induced Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Mice

Abstract

e present study aimed to evaluate the potential synergistic and protective effects of ALM16, a mixture of Astragalus membranaceus (AM) and Lithospermum erythrorhizon (LE) extract in a ratio of 7 : 3, against hepatic steatosis in high fat diet (HFD)induced nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) mice. Forty-eight mice were randomly divided into eight groups and orally administered daily for 6 weeks with a normal diet (ND) or high fat diet alone (HFD), HFD with AM (HFD + 100 mg/kg AM extract), HFD with LE (HFD + 100 mg/kg LE extract), HFD with ALM16 (HFD + 50, 100, and 200 mg/kg ALM16), or HFD with MT (HFD + 100 mg/kg Milk thistle extract) as a positive control. ALM16 significantly decreased the body and liver weight, serum and hepatic lipid profiles, including triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL), and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL), and serum glucose levels, compared to the HFD group. Moreover, ALM16 significantly ameliorated the HFD-induced increased hepatic injury markers, including aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT)-1. Furthermore, as compared to the mice fed HFD alone, ALM16 increased the levels of phosphorylated AMP-activated protein kinase (p-AMPK) and acetyl-CoA carboxylase (p-ACC), thereby upregulating the expression of carnitine palmitoyltransferase (CPT)-1 and downregulating the expression of sterol regulatory element-binding protein (SREBP)-1c and fatty acid synthase (FAS). ese results demonstrated that ALM16 markedly inhibited HFD-induced hepatic steatosis in NAFLD mice by modulating AMPK and ACC signaling pathways, and may be more effective than the single extracts of AM or LE.

Herp knockout protects against nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in mice on a high fat diet

“…21 It is reported that HFD induces NAFLD by inducing insulin resistance, which impaires the glucose-lowering effect of insulin and causes the increased TG and TC levels in serum, 14 and it also increases body and liver weights and elevates the levels of hepatic injury markers in mice, thus resulting in the development of hepatic steatosis and injury. 22 In this study, Herp knockout effectively reversed the highly elevated serum levels of TG, TC, HDL, LDL, glucose, insulin, and HOMA-IR in HFD-fed mice with reduction in the body weight, liver weight and liver/body weight ratio in mice, indicating that Herp knockout could improve hepatic lipid profiles, glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity in HFD-fed mice with the decreased body weight and live weight. However, whether the improvement of biochemical profiles and histopathogic features were directly via the reduction of weight is still unknown, because the effect of Herp knockout on other NASH models showing lean body weight instead of obesity, such as methionine choline-deficient (MCD) diet induced NASH mice, was not explored.…”

“…23,24 It is also generally accepted that GGT, which is an enzyme abundant in the liver, is elevated as a result of obesity and liver damage, and thus regarded as one of the predictors of liver mortality. 22 In this study, HFD-induced Herp −/− mice were, and serum TG, TC, GGT, ALT, and AST levels than WT mice, which suggested that Herp knockout can slow down the development and progression of HFD-induced NAFLD.…”

Tibetan Medicine Shi-Wei-Gan-Ning-San Alleviates Carbon Tetrachloride-Induced Chronic Liver Injury by Inhibiting TGF-β1 in Wistar Rats

“…Liver injury and liver diseases are one of the most dangerous diseases that are a threat to human life [ 1 – 3 ]. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has shown a good hepatoprotective effect on various chronic liver diseases clinically [ 4 ]. Although, TCM has been used in Eastern medicine for thousands of years; however, there is a lack of scientific evidence data on its therapeutic benefits.…”

Total flavonoids of Astragalus Ameliorated Bile Acid Metabolism Dysfunction in Diabetes Mellitus

“…Recent findings have indicated its role in modulating glucose metabolism and controlling progression of diabetes. Astragalus Radix is a common Chinese medicine used to treat diabetes [26], and a report has demonstrated that Astragalus Radix can regulate blood lipid and blood glucose levels in HFD-fed mice [27]. Previously, we found active Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine flavonoid components of Astragalus Radix have protective effects against diabetic damage in vitro [10][11][12][13], but its influence on bile acid metabolism was not studied.…”