Ginseng (Panax ginseng Meyer) Oligopeptides Protect Against Binge Drinking-Induced Liver Damage through Inhibiting Oxidative Stress and Inflammation in Rats

Abstract

Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer (ginseng) is an edible and traditional medicinal herb, which is reported to have a wide range of biological activity and pharmaceutical properties. There were more studies on ginsenoside and polysaccharides, but fewer on ginseng oligopeptides (GOPs), which are small molecule oligopeptides extracted from ginseng. The present study was designed to investigate the effects and underlying mechanism of ginseng oligopeptide (GOPs) on binge drinking-induced alcohol damage in rats. Sprague Dawley rats were randomly assigned to six groups (n = 10), rats in normal control group and alcohol model group was administered distilled water; rats in four GOPs intervention groups (at a dose of 0.0625, 0.125, 0.25, 0.5 g/kg of body weight, respectively) were administered GOPs once a day for 30 days. Experiment rats were intragastrically administered ethanol at a one-time dose of 7 g/kg of body weight after 30 days. The liver injury was measured through traditional liver enzymes, inflammatory cytokines, expression of oxidative stress markers, and histopathological examination. We found that the GOPs treatment could significantly improve serum alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase, plasma lipopolysaccharide, and inflammatory cytokine levels, as well as the oxidative stress markers that were altered by alcohol. Moreover, GOPs treatment inhibited the protein expression of toll-like receptor 4, and repressed the inhibitor kappa Bα and nuclear factor-κB p65 in the liver. These findings suggested that GOPs have a significant protective effect on binge drinking-induced liver injury, and the mechanism possibly mediated by the partial inhibition of lipopolysaccharide—toll-like receptor 4-nuclear factor-κB p65 signaling in the liver.

The Gastroprotective Effect of Small Molecule Oligopeptides Isolated from Walnut (Juglans regia L.) against Ethanol-Induced Gastric Mucosal Injury in Rats

“…Generally, NF-κB interacts with inhibitor kappa B (IκB) to make it inactive in the cytoplasm under physiological conditions. When various stimuli lead it to return to phosphor-IκB, then IκB degrades, thereby translocating NF-kB to the nucleus and inducing the expression of its target genes, such as TNF-α and IL-1β [31,55,56]. The results demonstrated that the protein expression of NF-κB p65 (Figure 5b), Bax (Figure 5f), and caspase 3 (Figure 5g) were up-regulated, while the IκBα (Figure 5c) and Bcl 2 (Figure 5e) expression were down-regulated in rats in the ethanol group when compared with those of rats in the normal group.…”

“…The expression of Bax, caspase-3, Bcl-2, HSP70, NF-κB (p65), and IκBα proteins in gastric tissue of experiment rats was determined by Western blot analysis according to the previously described procedures with some optimizing modifications [31,32]. In brief, total proteins were extracted from homogenates using RIPA lysis buffer and the concentration was determined according to the BCA method.…”

The hepato-protective effect of eupatilin on an alcoholic liver disease model of rats

“…When 4 g/kg of ethanol was administered in the preliminary test, ALD was not satisfactorily induced. Thus, we increased the concentration of ethanol to 7 g/kg in this experiment based on other previous studies [31][32][33].…”

Beneficial effects of Chinese herbs in the treatment of fatty liver diseases

“…3 A). 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 Allicin, the compound found in fresh garlic blends, improves alcohol dehydrogenase activity in AFLD mice. Most of the Chinese herbs that exhibit an attenuation effect on AFLD act as anti-oxidative or anti-inflammatory agents.…”