Protective Effects of Ecklonia stolonifera Extract on Ethanol-Induced Fatty Liver in Rats

Abstract

Chronic alcohol consumption causes alcoholic liver disease, which is associated with the initiation of dysregulated lipid metabolism. Recent evidences suggest that dysregulated cholesterol metabolism plays an important role in the pathogenesis of alcoholic fatty liver disease. Ecklonia stolonifera (ES), a perennial brown marine alga that belongs to the family Laminariaceae, is rich in phlorotannins. Many studies have indicated that ES has extensive pharmacological effects, such as antioxidative, hepatoprotective, and antiinflammatory effects. However, only a few studies have investigated the protective effect of ES in alcoholic fatty liver. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into normal diet (ND) (fed a normal diet for 10 weeks) and ethanol diet (ED) groups. Rats in the ED group were fed a Lieber-DeCarli liquid diet (containing 5% ethanol) for 10 weeks and administered ES extract (50, 100, or 200 mg/kg/day), silymarin (100 mg/kg/day), or no treatment for 4 weeks. Each treatment group comprised of eight rats. The supplementation with ES resulted in decreased serum levels of triglycerides (TGs), total cholesterol, alanine aminotransferase, and aspartate aminotransferase. In addition, there were decreases in hepatic lipid and malondialdehyde levels. Changes in liver histology, as analyzed by Oil Red O staining, showed that the ES treatment suppressed adipogenesis. In addition, the ES treatment increased the expression of fatty acid oxidation-related genes (e.g., PPAR-α and CPT-1) but decreased the expression of SREBP 1, which is a TG synthesis-related gene. These results suggest that ES extract may be useful in preventing fatty acid oxidation and reducing lipogenesis in ethanol-induced fatty liver.

Polydatin Protects Rat Liver against Ethanol‐Induced Injury: Involvement of CYP2E1/ROS/Nrf2 and TLR4/NF‐κB p65 Pathway

“…Large amounts of alcohol consumption can damage hepatocyte mitochondrial function, inhibit peroxidase activity, and further interfere in lipid oxidation reaction, ultimately resulting in lipid accumulation [ 31 , 32 ]. Moreover, alcohol can also increase mobilization of fatty acids in the liver by stimulating peripheral steatolysis and promote TG synthesis [ 33 ]. In line with these findings, our observations suggest that lipid metabolic disorder is induced after alcohol administration, as implied by the increase of TG content and the results of Oil Red O staining.…”

Hepaprotective Effect of StandardizedEcklonia stoloniferaFormulation on CCl4-Induced Liver Injury in Sprague-Dawley Rats

“…The previous in vitro study has figured out that ES has the most outstanding hepatotoxic protective effect among the various brown algae ( Choi et al ., 2015 ). After that, the liver protection effect was confirmed on the alcohol-induced rat model using the ES formulation ( Bang et al ., 2016 ). However, studies on non-alcoholic liver injury were insufficient.…”

Ecklonia stolonifera Extract Suppresses Lipid Accumulation by Promoting Lipolysis and Adipose Browning in High-Fat Diet-Induced Obese Male Mice

“…ESE was obtained from Naturalway Co., Ltd. (Pocheon, Korea). It was prepared from the brown seaweed, Ecklonia stolonifera, by 70% edible ethanol extraction for 9 h, filtration, evaporation, and finally freeze-drying at −47 • C. According to previously published high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) data [24], the ESE generated contains 23.7 ± 0.21 mg/g dieckol.…”