Prophylactic and curative effects of purslane on bile duct ligation-induced hepatic fibrosis in albino rats.

INTRODUCTION: Hepatic fibrosis is a common pathological process of chronic liver injury. Oxidative stress and inflammation may have prognostic value in disease progression. OBJECTIVE: To examine the implication of both aforementioned factors in hepatic fibrosis progression and whether, the antioxidant effect of various biological active constituents such as phenolic, flavonoids and fatty acids of purslane hydro-ethanolic extract can represent a potential target for therapy. METHODS: Purslane exhibited a considerable antioxidant potential in DPPH assay compared to α-tocopherol. Consequently, the current study was designed to examine the prophylactic and curative effects of purslane extract on bile duct ligation (BDL)-induced liver fibrosis in rats in comparison with silymarin as a reference hepatoprotective agent. Purslane (400 mg/kg/day) or silymarin (50 mg/kg/day) were administered orally for 4 weeks, immediately after surgery in order to evaluate the prophylactic effect and for 3 weeks starting 3 weeks after BDL in order to evaluate the curative effect. BDL significantly increased liver enzymes, total bilirubin (TB) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) in serum along with malondialdehyde (MDA) in liver tissues. RESULTS: Significant decrease in hepatic antioxidant defense system was noted in BDL-rats. Conversely, administration of purslane reversed all these biochemical parameters which were previously induced by BDL. Considerably, purslane effect was more pronounced in the prophylactic study than that in the curative one. CONCLUSION: The present work suggested that purslane had prophylactic and curative value on cholestasis-induced liver fibrosis through inhibition of oxidative stress, decreasing the expression of profibrogenic cytokines, collagenolytic activity and activation of hepatic stellate cells.