• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.295-305
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• 2021

Purpose: Hepcidin levels have previously been reported to be correlated with liver damage. However, the association between hepcidin levels and liver fibrosis in children with fatty liver disease remains unclear. This study therefore aimed to investigate the pathophysiology of fibrosis in children with fatty liver disease and its association with hepcidin levels. Methods: This retrospective case series included 12 boys aged 6-17 years who were diagnosed with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) or nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) at the Tokyo Medical University Hospital. Sixteen liver biopsy samples from 12 subjects were analyzed. Serum hepcidin levels were assayed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Immunostaining for hepcidin was performed, and the samples were stratified by staining intensity. Results: Serum hepcidin levels were higher in pediatric NAFLD/NASH patients than in controls. Conversely, a significant inverse correlation was observed between hepcidin immunostaining and Brunt grade scores and between hepcidin scores and gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase, hyaluronic acid, and leukocyte levels. We observed inverse correlations with a high correlation coefficient of >0.4 between hepcidin immunostaining and aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, total bile acid, and platelet count. Conclusion: There was a significant inverse correlation between hepcidin immunoreactivity and fibrosis in pediatric NAFLD patients; however, serum hepcidin levels were significantly higher, suggesting that these patients experienced a reduction in the hepcidin-producing ability of the liver in response to iron levels, leading to subsequent fibrosis. Therefore, hepcidin levels can be used as markers to identify the progression of fibrosis in patients with NAFLD.

• BMB Reports
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.114-119
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• 2023

Liver fibrosis is caused by chronic liver damage and results in the aberrant accumulation of extracellular matrix during disease progression. Despite the identification of the HAT enzyme p300 as a major factor for liver fibrosis, the development of therapeutic agents targeting the regulation of p300 has not been reported. We validated a novel p300 inhibitor (A6) on the improvement of liver fibrosis using two mouse models, mice on a choline-deficient high-fat diet and thioacetamide-treated mice. We demonstrated that pathological hall-marks of liver fibrosis were significantly diminished by A6 treatment through Masson's trichrome and Sirius red staining on liver tissue and found that A6 treatment reduced the expression of matricellular protein genes. We further showed that A6 treatment improved liver fibrosis by reducing the stability of p300 protein via disruption of p300 binding to AKT. Our findings suggest that targeting p300 through the specific inhibitor A6 has potential as a major therapeutic avenue for treating liver fibrosis.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.102-113
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• 1991

This study aimed to find out the effect of freeze-drying leek against cadmium poisoning on the cholesterol and enzyme activities in serum and superoxide radical, SOD and catalase in liver and kidney of the male rats during the administrered period. In this experiment, male rats of Sprague-Dawley strain were used. The rats were divided into 3 groups which were fed differently either for 5 weeks or for 10 weeks:basal diet, basal diet and cadmium in water and 3 % leek added diet and cadmium in water. Cadmium was administered ad libiturn 100 ppm CdCl$_{2}$ in water. The followings are the results of this experiment. 1. Leek reduced the cholesterol and the activities of GPT increase resulted from cadmium treatment. 2. Leek reduced the rate of cadmium in liver and kidney. 3. Leek reduced the activities of SOR and catalase in liver and kidney, while it enhanced the activities of SOD. 4. Leek reduced the necrosis and swelling in liver and kidney casused by cadmium treatment. This experiment showed that leek-addition group had protective effect against cadmium poisoning and increased ALPase activities in serum. Leek alleviated GPT activities in serum and cadmium concentration, necrosis, and swelling in liver and kidney. Therefore, this experiment concluded that leek has defensive power against cadmium poisoning.

• Herbal Formula Science
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.135-146
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• 2003

Objectives : Wolguk-whan has been used as a prescription of natural drug for the treatment of stress digestive system disease. Recently, we reported that Wolguk-whan methnol extract (WGWM) exerted a significant protective effect against oxidative damage to the liver of ICR mice. This study was purposed to investigate the effects of Wolguk-whan water extract (WGWW) on liver injury induced by oxidative stress. Methods : In order to investigate the effects of WGWW on acute liver injury, ICR mice were pretreated with WGWW for 6days, starved for 24hrs, and administerated acetamirtophen(500mg/kg, i.p.). In the liver homogenates, lipid peroxide and glutathione(GSH) levels were measured. In addition, activities of hepatic enzyme, such as catalase, glutathione peroxidase(GSH-Px), glutathione S-transferase(GST) were measured in the hepatic mitochondrial and cytosolic fractions. Results : In vivo administeration of WGWW showed effective inhibition of acetaminophen induced lipid peroxidation, and showed elevations of GSH level, catalase, GSH-Px, GST activities. Conclusions : These results suggested that WGWW might suppress the formation of oxidative metabolites, and prevent acetaminophen induced hepatotoxicity.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.21 no.10
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• pp.1383-1388
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• 2008

Because of high growth rate and large deposition of fat in the abdomen, the chicken has been used as a model organism for understanding lipid metabolism, fattening and growing. In this study, differentially expression of proteins in chicken liver, one of the important organs for lipid metabolism, has been investigated at four different growing stages. After separation of proteins using two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE), more than 700 protein spots were detected. Among them, 13 growing stage specific proteins in chicken liver were selected and further investigated by matrix-assisted laser adsorptions ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). Of these, 12 proteins were matched to existing proteins based on a database search. The identified fat-related proteins in this study were fatty acid synthase (FASN) and malic enzyme (ME1). These proteins were more highly expressed at week 32 than at other weeks. In order to confirm the differential expression, one of the proteins, FASN, was confirmed by western blotting. The identified proteins will give valuable information on biochemical roles in chicken liver, especially for lipid metabolism.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.28-35
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• 1998

This study was done to investigate the relationship between ultrasonograph fat density (ULFD) using objective measurement and serum enzymes for testing liver function in 101 healthy adults(43 males and 58 females). Average serum enzyme activities in males and females were GOT27.111U/L and 22.46IU/L, GPT 34.06IU/L and 18.501U/L, and ${\gamma}$-GTP 37.67IU/L and 17.201U/L, respectively. Males showed significantly higher activities of GPT and ${\gamma}$-GTP than females. ULFD of the obese group (BMI$\geq$25) was significantly higher than that of the nonobese group. GOT, GPT, and ${\gamma}$-GTP tended to be high in the obese group. GPT and ${\gamma}$-GTP of the high TG group (TG$\geq$170) tended to be markedly high for males, but not for females. GPT was positively correlated with ULFD, body weight , and weight-to-height, ratio, and ${\gamma}$-GTP was positively correlated with body weight, weight-to-height ratio. BNI, and KI. ULFD and ${\gamma}$-GTP were positively correlated with serum TG. These results suggests that , among serum enzymes for testing liver function, GPT has a close relationship with ULFD using objective measurement, while GOT does not. Also , ${\gamma}$-GTP has a close relationship with parameters for obesity.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.23-28
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• 2003

To evaluate the effect of cyclohexane(CH) treatment on the liver cytochrome P-450 dependent aniline hydroxylase(CYPdAH) activity in alcohol-pretreated animals, CH(1.56 g/kg body weight) was intraperitoneally administered to Sprague-Dawley male rats, which had been drunk 15％ alcohol in distilled water for 1,3 and 6 weeks. CH was injected to rats 4 times every other day and the animals were sacrificed at 24 hours after injection of CH. In the alcohol-pretreated rats, liver injuries were not demonstrated on the basis of the liver weight per body weight, the levels of serum alanine aminotransferase and hepatic microsomal glucose-6-phosphatase activities. By the CH treatment, alcohol-pretreated animals showed the significantly increased activity of hepatic microsomal CYPdAH. Concomitantly $V_{max}$ value in CYPdAH was more increased, whereas $K_{M}$ value more decreased in alcohol-pretreated animals by the treatment of CH. In conclusion, the increasing cause of microsomal CYPdAH in CH-treated rats pretreated with alcohol may be due to induction of enzyme protein in rat liver.r.r.

• Advances in Traditional Medicine
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.28-36
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• 2000

Effects of hesperetin and naringenin on the concentration of triacylglycerol in the serum and liver were studied in male golden hamster fed with the semipurified diet containing at 1% level of them for 3 weeks. The concentration of triacylglycerol in serum of the naringenin group decreased by 31%, whereas that in liver increased by 37% compared to the control group. The concentration of triacylglycerol in the serum and liver of the hesperetin group was slightly lower than the control group. The activity of microsomal phosphatidate phosphohydrolase in the liver, which is a key enzyme for biosynthesis of triacylglycerol, was significantly inhibited in the hesperetin group, whereas it was not affected in the naringenin group. The effect of hesperetin on phosphatidate phosphohydrolase was also measured in vitro. Hesperetin decreased the activity of phosphatidate phosphohydrolase with a dose-dependent manner. Both naringenin and hesperetin did not statistically affect the daily food consumption, body weight, liver weight, and total cholesterol in the serum. The observation accounts for the hypotriglyceridemic effect of hesperetin in the hyperlipidemic hamster.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.371-376
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• 1997

To compare the severe liver damage with the slight one on the bromobeazene metabolism in rats, the animal group described as B7 group was induced the stage of slight liver damage with 7 times bromobenzene injection every other day (400 mg/Kg body wt. i.p.), whereas B40 group was induced that of more severe liver damage with bromobeazene 40 times injection as identified with determination of serum levels of alanine aminotransferase(ALT) activity and the histopathological findings. In the present experimental animal model, the decreasing rate of glutathione(GSH) and the increasing rate of glutathione S-transferase activity to the control group were higher in B7 group than B40 group. Furthermore the single dose of bromobenzene was injected to the two groups and sacrificed at 8hr and the hepatic aniline hydroxylase(AH) activity, GSH content and GST activity were determined. The increasing rate of AH activity to the control was lower in B40 group than B7 group and the decreasing rate of GSH to the control was also lower in B40 than B7 group. Moreover, B7 group showed the increased activity of hepatic GST to the control whereas B40 group showed the decrease activity of the enzyme. And Vmax value in GST was more decreased in B40 group than B7 group.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 1998

In the present study, to determine whether the antioxidative components of Korean red ginseng protect against radiation damage and the possible relationship among the radioprotective effects and antioxidant actions, the effects of total saponin (200 mg/kg, ip) and lipophilic fraction (200 mg/kg, oral) preferment of mice on the survival ratio, major antioxidant enzymes (SOD, catalase and glutathione peroxidase) activities, glutathione levels and lipid peroxidation in the liver were exiled for 2 weeks after whole ${\gamma}$-body ${\gamma}$-irradiation (6.5 Gy). The 30-day survival ratio increased from 10% to 57% and 40% for mice treated with total saponin and lipophilic fraction, respectively. On day 14 after ${\gamma}$-irradiation, the ginseng total saponin pretreatment produced a slight increase of antioxidant enzymes activities and significantly Increased reduced glutathione (GSH) contents (p<0.05) in the liver compared with non-treated group. Pretreatment with ginseng total saponin significantly deceased GSSG/total GSH ratio (p<0.05) without change of GSSG in the liver and inhibited the radiation-induced incense in the hepatic malondialdehyde levels. (p<0.05) In these results, GSH plays an important role in the liver in several detoxifications and the reduction of lipid peroxides. Thus, it appears that total saponin of red ginseng exerts its radioprotective effect by accelerating the production of endogenous antioxidants, such as glutathione from radiation induced damages and thereby oxygen free radicals.