Toxicity of antioxidative extract collected fromStyela clavatunics in ICR mice

Abstract

Some polymers and bioactive compounds derived from Styela clava tunic (SCT) have been reported as traditional medicine for the treatment of inflammation, oxidative stress and surgical wounds although there is little scientific evidence of their liver and kidney toxicity. To investigate the toxicity of ethanol extracts of SCT (EtSCT) in the liver and kidney of ICR mice, alterations in related markers including body weight, organ weight, urine composition, liver pathology and kidney pathology were analyzed following oral administration of 50 and 100 mg/kg body weight/day of EtSCT for 14 days. EtSCT showed a high level of free radical scavenging activity for DPPH (93.1%) and NO (16.2%) as well as the presence of 14.8 mg/mL of flavonoids and 36.2 mg/mL of phenolics, while EtSCT treated groups did not show any significant alterations in the body and organ weight, clinical phenotypes, urine parameters or mice mortality when compared with the vehicle treated group. In addition, constant levels of serum biochemical markers including alanine phosphatase (ALP), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and serum creatinine (CRE) were maintained. Moreover, no specific histopathological features induced by most toxic compounds were observed in liver and kidney sections stained with hematoxilin and eosin. Therefore, the present results indicate that EtSCT with strong antioxidant activity cannot induce any specific toxicity in liver and kidney organs of ICR at doses of 100 mg/kg body weight/day.

Ethanol extracts collected from the <i>Styela clava</i> tunic alleviate hepatic injury induced by carbon tetrachloride (CCl₄) through inhibition of hepatic apoptosis, inflammation, and fibrosis

“…However, the weights of the heart, lung, spleen, and thymus decreased after CCl 4 injection, and were not recovered in the LEtSCT+CCl 4 - and HEtSCT+CCl 4 -treated group when compared with the Vehicle+CCl 4 -treated group ( Table 2 ). These results indicate that EtSCT treatment for 5 days does not induce any significant change in body weight or the weight of most organs in ICR mice, which is different from ICR mice treated with only LEtSCT or HEtSCT 24 .…”

“…In this study, the serum level of ALP was gradually enhanced in the Vehicle+CCl 4 -, LEtSCT+CCl 4 - and HEtSCT+CCl 4 -treated group compared with the non-treated group, although Vehicle+CCl 4 did not show any statistical significance. However, the results of our previous study showed that EtSCT did not induce any toxic effects on liver tissue of EtSCT-treated mice without CCl 4 based on the serum levels of four enzyme indicators and histological structure 24 . Therefore, we believe that an increase in only the ALP level in the LEtSCT+CCl 4 - and HEtSCT+CCl 4 -treated groups may have been correlated with the synergistic effects of some EtSCT components and CCl 4 on the hepatic injury, as hemolysis of red blood cells during collection of whole blood was previously shown to simultaneously enhance the ALP and AST levels 47 .…”

“…The first group did not receive any solution throughout the study period, while the second group repeatedly received a constant volume of desterilized water. The other two groups were treated with 50 mg (LEtSCT+CCl 4 -treated group) and 100 mg (HEtSCT+CCl 4 -treated group) of EtSCT per kg of body weight/day during the same period because these doses did not induce any significance toxicity in ICR mice 24 . The EtSCT was diluted in distilled water and administered via oral gavage for 5 days.…”