ABSTRACT
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a chronic liver disease characterized by the accumulation of triglycerides and associated with obesity, hyperlipidemia and insulin resistance. Currently, there is no therapy for NAFLD. Emerging evidences suggest that the inhibition of liver X receptor (LXR) activity may be a potential therapy for hepatic steatosis. Here, we identified that sophoricoside is a selective antagonist of LXRß. Sophoricoside protected against obesity and glucose tolerance, and inhibited lipid accumulation in the liver of high-fat diet-induced obesity (DIO) mice and methionine and choline-deficient diet-induced nonalcoholic steatohepatitis mice. Furthermore, sophoricoside inhibited malondialdehyde, and increased superoxide dismutase and glutathione in the liver of the mice. In HepG2 cells, pretreatment with sophoricoside rescued GSH concentration decrease induced by H2 O2 treatment. Our data suggest that sophoricoside is a novel LXRß selective antagonist and may improve glucose and lipid dysfunction, and attenuate lipid accumulation in the liver of DIO mice via anti-oxidant properties, which may be developed as a therapy for NAFLD.
Subject(s)
Benzopyrans/therapeutic use , Liver X Receptors/antagonists & inhibitors , Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease/drug therapy , Animals , Benzopyrans/pharmacology , Diet, High-Fat , Female , HEK293 Cells , Hep G2 Cells , Humans , Liver/drug effects , Liver/pathology , Liver X Receptors/genetics , Male , Mice , Mice, Inbred C57BL , Mice, Knockout , Mice, Obese , Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease/genetics , Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease/metabolism , Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease/pathology , Obesity/drug therapy , Obesity/etiology , Obesity/genetics , Obesity/metabolism , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
In order to investigate the mechanism of the therapeutic effect of puerarin on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, a non-alcoholic fatty disease male rat model was induced by a high fat diet, all rats were randomly divided into a blank group, model group, simavastatin group and puerarin group. After 4 weeks of drug treatment, the liver was slided to investigate pathological morphology. Elisa was used to measure the total cholesterol (TC), triglyeride (TG) in liver, and leptin content in serum. RT-PCR and Western blotting were employed to detect liver leptin mRNA receptor expression and P-JAK2, P-STAT3 expression levels in the liver respectively. The results showed that puerarin significantly decreased the TG, TC content in liver of the non-alcoholic fatty disease rats, ameliorated steatosis in liver, lowered liver inflammatory reaction, decreased leptin level in serum, and enhanced the expression of leptin receptor mRNA and P-JAK2/P-STAT3 level. All the results demonstrated that puerarin can exhibit therapeutic effect on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease by improving leptin signal transduction through JAK2/STAT3 pathways.
