Hepatoprotection of Lycii Fructus Polysaccharide against Oxidative Stress in Hepatocytes and Larval Zebrafish

Abstract

Scavenging of oxidative stress by antioxidants may provide a therapeutic strategy for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Increasing evidence is supporting the potential application of natural resourced polysaccharides as promising prevention or treatment strategies against NAFLD. In the current study, an acidic heteropolysaccharide, LFP-a1, was isolated and purified from Lycii fructus with successively hot water refluxing extraction, alcohol precipitation, protein removal, and DEAE-52 cellulose chromatographic separation. LFP-a1 was a complicated structured polysaccharide with an average MW of 4.74 × 104 Da and composed of 6 monosaccharides and 1 uronic acid. Preexposure of LFP-a1 could increase the cell viability and reverse the abnormal oxidative stress though inhibition of mitochondrial-mediated apoptotic pathway and correction of cell cycle progression against H2O2 hepatoxicity in NAFLD model L02 cells. Consistently, in vivo study in thioacetamide- (TAA-) induced NAFLD model zebrafish larvae showed LFP-a1 preserved the liver integrity and alleviated TAA-induced oxidative stress through downregulation of abnormal apoptosis. These observations indicated the hepatoprotective activity of LFP-a1, which may be applied for the prevention or treatment of NAFLD or other oxidative stress-related diseases.

Research progress on the therapeutic effects of polysaccharides on non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases

“…Another study also confirmed its beneficial effect. Zhang et al (30) found that in a NAFLD cell model, LBP clearly decreased lipid accumulation and oxidative stress, as evidenced by the reduction of TG, ALT and AST and by the increase of SOD, CAT and GSH-Px. Interestingly, LBP could also promote mitochondrial biogenesis through activating peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator 1 (PGC-1α)/ nuclear factor erythroid 2-like 1 (NRF1) signaling pathway (31).…”

Prebiotic Effects of Chinese Herbal Polysaccharides on NAFLD Amelioration: The Preclinical Progress

“…In a NAFLD model of zebrafish larvae, LFP-a1 preserved liver integrity by inhibiting abnormal oxidative stress and apoptosis, which suggested that the prebiotic and hepatoprotective effects of LBP might be applied to prevent and treat NAFLD. 78…”

“…In a NAFLD model of zebrafish larvae, LFP-a1 preserved liver integrity by inhibiting abnormal oxidative stress and apoptosis, which suggested that the prebiotic and hepatoprotective effects of LBP might be applied to prevent and treat NAFLD. 78 Alismataceae: A orientale (ZeXie in Chinese) is a traditional Alismataceae herb that is often used to treat hyperlipidemia. Xu et al found that A orientale significantly decreased serum TC and LDL-C levels in rats.…”

Lycium barbarum Polysaccharides as Antibiotic Substitutes Improve Growth Performance, Serum Immunity, Antioxidant Status, and Intestinal Health for Weaned Piglets

“…Lycium barbarum, as a food and medicine, has been used in Asian countries for thousands of years to induce various health benefits (Donno et al, 2015;Zhao J. et al, 2016). L. barbarum polysaccharides (LBPs) are major bioactive components of L. barbarum and possess distinct bioactivities, including anti-oxidant (Wang et al, 2020;Zhang et al, 2021), anti-tumor (Gong et al, 2020), anti-diabetic (Shimato et al, 2020), immunomodulatory (Feng et al, 2020;Kim et al, 2020), liver protective (Jia et al, 2016), neuroprotective (Zhao Z. et al, 2016), renal protective (Wu et al, 2020), and improved eyesight activities (Zhu et al, 2016). Liu et al (2021a) demonstrated that variations in the molecular weight of LBPs exerted antioxidant effects on different free radical.…”