Background: Penthorum chinense Pursh (Penthoraceae, PCP), a well-known Miao ethnomedicine, has been traditionally\nused to treat several liver-related diseases, such as jaundice and viral hepatitis. The aims of the present study were\nto evaluate the probable properties of the aqueous extract of PCP on carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)ââ?¬â?induced acute liver\ninjury in mice.\nMethods: C57BL/6 mice were orally administered an aqueous extract of PCP (5.15 and 10.3 g/kg BW) or silymarin\n(100 mg/kg) once daily for 1 week prior to CCl4 exposure. Silymarin serves as a positive drug to validate the effectivenes\nof PCP.\nResults: A single dose of CCl4 exposure caused severe acute liver injury in mice, as evidenced by the elevated serum\nlevels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine phosphatase (ALP), and the\nincreased TUNEL-positive cells in liver, which were remarkably ameliorated by the pretreatment of PCP. PCP was also\nfound to decrease the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), restore the glutathione (GSH) and enhance the activities of\nsuperoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) in the liver. In addition, the pretreatment of PCP inhibited the degradation\nof hepatic cytochrome P450 2E1 (CYP2E1), up-regulated the expression of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related\nfactor 2 (Nrf2) and its target proteins in CCl4-treated mice.\nConclusion: Results indicated that the pretreatment of PCP (10.3 g/kg BW) effectively protected against\nCCl4-induced acute liver injury, which was comparable to efficacy of silymarin (100 mg/kg). This hepatoprotective\neffects might be attributed to amelioration of CCl4-induced oxidative stress via activating Nrf2 signaling pathway.
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