Protective effect of allicin on hepatic fibrosis in rats and its mechanism
YE Jing
ZHOU Xiao-ming
ZHANG Li
WANG Lu-lu
LIU Qing-hua
Abstract：Objective To observe the protective effect of allicin on hepatic fibrosis in rats , and to investigate its mechanism.Methods Forty-five Wistar rats were randomly divided into six groups as follows: blank control group , sol-vent control group , model group , low-dose allicin prevention group , medium-dose allicin prevention group and medium-dose allicin treatment group .Rat models of hepatic fibrosis in the model , low-dose prevention allicin , medium-dose preven-tion allicin and medium-dose allicin treatment groups were induced by carbon tetrachloride ( CCl4 ) intraperitoneally for eight weeks.Rats in the low-dose and medium-dose allicin prevention groups received allicin (11, 22 mg/(kg· d)) at the beginning of modeling.Rats in the medium-dose allicin treatment group received allicin (22 mg/(kg· d)) from the fifth week.Rats in the solvent control group was treated with the same amount of vegetable oil for 8 weeks.The expression levels of ALT, AST and transforming growth factor-β( TGF-β) were detected by ELISA .The hepatic histological changes were also observed by optical microscopy as well as the hyperplasia degree of collagen fiber .Results Comparison of ALT , AST serum levels:model group >low-dose allicin prevention group >medium-dose allicin prevention group , medium-dose al-licin treatment group, blank control group, or solvent control group (all P<0.05).Comparison of TGF-βserum levels:model group >low-dose allicin prevention group >medium-dose allicin prevention group >medium-dose allicin treat-ment group >blank control group or solvent control group (all P<0.05).The histopathological results showed that allicin could attenuate the degree of hepatic fibrosis and cellular degeneration and protect the entire structure of liver tissues .Com-parison of liver cell degeneration degree and collagen fiber hyperplasia degree evaluation :model group >low-dose allicin prevention group , medium-dose allicin prevention group , medium-dose allicin treatment group >blank control group , sol-vent control group ( all P<0.01).Conclusion The medium-dose allicin can prevent the hepatic fibrosis of rats with mechanism of down-regulating the TGF-βexpression and reducing the degeneration of liver cells .
Keywords：allicinliver fibrosistransforming growth factor-βrats
Publication Date：2015-01-01
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：3( 5-7 )