Chongcao‐Shencha Attenuates Liver and Kidney Injury through Attenuating Oxidative Stress and Inflammatory Response in D‐Galactose‐Treated Mice

Abstract

The Chongcao-Shencha (CCSC), a Chinese herbal compound formula, has been widely used as food material and medicine for enhancing physical strength. The present study investigated the possible effect of CCSC in alleviating the liver and kidney injury in D-galactose- (D-gal-) treated mice and the underlying mechanism. Mice were given a subcutaneous injection of D-gal (200 mg/kg) and orally administered CCSC (200, 400, and 800 mg/kg) daily for 8 weeks. Results indicated that CCSC increased the depressed body weight and organ index induced by D-gal, ameliorated the histological deterioration, and decreased the levels of ALT, AST, BUN, and CRE as compared with D-gal group. Furthermore, CCSC not only elevated the activities of antioxidant enzymes SOD, CAT, and GPx but also upregulated the mRNA expression of SOD1, CAT, and GPx1, while decreasing the MDA level in D-gal-treated mice. Results of western blotting analysis showed that CCSC significantly inhibited the upregulation of expression of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) p65, p-p65, p-IκBα, COX2, and iNOS and inhibited the downregulation of IκBα protein expression caused by D-gal. This study demonstrated that CCSC could attenuate the liver and kidney injury in D-gal-treated mice, and the mechanism might be associated with attenuating oxidative stress and inflammatory response.

Anti-Aging Effect of Chitosan Oligosaccharide on d-Galactose-Induced Subacute Aging in Mice

“…Furthermore, the serum levels of ALT, AST, and ALP are widely used to evaluate liver functions, in which ALP plays a very important role in the dephosphorylation of protein enzymes, while ALT and AST are the earliest and most sensitive indicators of liver injury. Meanwhile, UA and CREA are the main indicators of renal function, which will be filtered out through the glomerular fluid into the blood stream in large amounts when renal damage occurs during the aging process [ 37 , 38 ]. Accompanied with oxidative tissue damage of mice liver and kidney, the serum levels of ALT, AST, and ALP, as well as CREA and UA in the model group mice, were significantly higher than those of normal group mice.…”

“…To sum up, VE, the monomer of which is often used as the positive control for the studies of subacute aging in mice induced by d -gal, is a well-known fat-soluble vitamin with excellent antioxidant activity [ 37 , 39 , 40 ]. Given that VE showed no prominent promoting effect on these d -gal-produced reduction of immune function indicators of mice, it was reasonable to infer that the certain protective effect of VE on the liver and kidney of d -gal-induced aging mice might be mainly due to its anti-oxidation quality.…”

“…While mice in the normal group received equal amounts of physiological saline once daily instead of d -gal. After subcutaneous injection of d -gal in mice for one hour, mice in normal and model groups were treated with distilled water by gavage (20 mL/kg/day); meanwhile, mice in VE group were treated with VE by gavage (50 mg/kg/day) as a positive control according to recent reports [ 37 , 39 , 40 ]. Mice in COS-L, COS-M, and COS-H groups were treated with the sample solutions (three different doses of COS) per day by gavage, respectively, which were administered daily as the treatment schedule displayed in Table 3 .…”

Prostaglandins in the pathogenesis of kidney diseases

“…Because of the specific distribution in the kidney, COX-2 is of vital importance in regulating renin release and water/salt metabolism [ 34 ]. More importantly, the significant role of COX-2 in kidney diseases, especially in CKD, has been documented by using COX-deficient mouse models or COX antagonists [ 35 – 42 ]. It is known that inhibition of COX-2 is associated with AKI incidence due to the imbalance of renal function in fluid excretion and intra-renal hemodynamics.…”

Aqueous Extract of Clerodendranthus spicatus Exerts Protective Effect on UV‐Induced Photoaged Mice Skin

“…What is more, in traditional Chinese medicine theory, kidney supports human body to be young and vigorous. Our team [15] and other researchers [16] have reported that CS has good antiaging effect through improving antioxidant capacity of aged mice induced by D-galactose. It attracts our attention to reveal if CS can prevent exogenous senescence.…”