Quantitative analysis and hepatoprotective mechanism of Cistanche deserticola Y. C. Ma against alcohol-induced liver injury in mice.

Cistanche deserticola Y. C. Ma (CD), known as "desert ginseng", has been found to have hepatoprotective effect. This research aimed to investigate the quality control and its alleviating effect on alcoholic liver injury in mice. In this study, for the first time, a sensitive and efficient ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography with quadrupole ion-trap mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TRAP/MS) method was developed to rapidly characterize nine representative phenylethanoid glycosides (PhGs) in the CD extract within 14 min, offering a reference for the quality control standard of this plant. In addition, we found that the CD extract significantly inhibited the weight loss, decreased the liver index, and attenuated excessive lipid deposition, inflammatory and oxidative stress in the mice liver. With the help of the high-throughput lipidomics technique, we discovered that CD markedly reversed 17 lipid metabolites and their involved linoleic acid, arachidonic acid and glycerophospholipid metabolic pathways. As these metabolites are mainly associated with lipid metabolism and liver damage, we further used molecular biological tests to found that CD could regulate the upstream genes and proteins of the lipid metabolism pathway, including adenosine 5'-monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK), sterol regulatory element binding protein-1c (SREBP-1c), fatty acid synthase (FAS), and peroxidase proliferators activate receptors α (PPARα). In conclusion, this study elucidates the modulatory effects of CD on lipid metabolism disorders in alcoholic fatty liver from holistic system and provides a reference for further research and development of CD as a therapeutic agent.

[Bioremediation of petroleum hydrocarbon contaminated soil by bioaugmentation products].

In an experimental investigation of bioaugmentation products affected on the petroleum contaminated soil. The influence of the bioaugmentation products dose, injections and temperature on bioremediation were studied. The results showed that the degradation rate was related positively to the amount of inoculation, when the dose was increased to 0.6 mg x kg(-1), total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) degradation rate was 87% in 48 days. The results of GC-MS indicated that the dominant petroleum constituents in oil-contaminated raw soil were 82.1% n-alkane, 16% alkene and little of others hydrocarbons, such as carotane, alkylnaphthalenes, hopanes, and steranes. The peaks amount of GC profile decreased from 32 to 14 after 40 days of bioremediation, this result indicated that branched alkanes, alkene, and alkylnaphthalenes were thoroughly degraded, then line alkanes, hopanes, and steranes were left in soil. In addition, the longer part of n-alkane were degraded with rate relatively higher, while the residual fraction at the end of the test is shorter part of n-alkane because bacteria degraded the longer n-alkane to shorter. The shorter n-alkane concentration decreased with increasing inoculation. One time injection of bioaugmentation products into soil clearly improved the biodegradation efficiency higher than injection of bioaugmentation products in turn. Soil temperature also affected TPH degradation rate when it was 30 degrees C, TPH rate reached 80%, where as when it was 20 degrees C, the TPH rate was lower to 60%, which indicated higher temperature improved TPH degradation and accelerated bioremediation.