• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.110-116
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• 2008

Purpose: Acute toxic hepatitis is a common cause of acute liver failure (ALF). We investigated the causes, clinical manifestation, and outcomes of ALF patients who underwent liver transplantation due to acute toxic hepatitis caused by herbal medicines and preparations. Methods: Between January 1992 and May 2008, we retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 24 patients who were transplanted due to acute toxic hepatitis caused by herbal medicines and preparations. We applied the RUCAM score to patients with acute toxic hepatitis and assessed the relationship between herbal preparations and liver injury. We studied the patients' medication history, liver function tests, and clinical outcomes. Results: The type of liver injury was divided into three groups: hepatocellular type, 14 patients (58.3%); cholestatic type, 4 patients (16.7%); and mixed type, 6 patients (25%). Polygonum multiflorum Thunberg (3 cases) was the most common cause of acute toxic hepatitis, followed by Acanthopanax senticosus (2 cases), pumpkin juice (2 cases), Dictamnus dasycarpus Turcz (2 cases), Hovenia dulcis (1 case), Phellinus linteus (1 case), and Artemisia capillaries (1 case). One year survival after liver transplantation was 76%. Conclusion: We identified the herbal preparations leading to acute liver failure. Many patients consider herbal remedies to be completely free of unwanted side effects. However, we found that many herbal products have biological activities that can lead to severe hepatotoxicity.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.219-223
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to investigate the protective effects of fucoidan on acute alcohol-induced liver injury in rats. Experimental animals were randomly divided into four groups: (1) a control group, (2) a group fed 25% ethanol, (3) a group fed 25% ethanol and 250 mg/kg BW of fucoidan (25% ethanol+FUCO250), and (4) a group fed 25% ethanol and 500 mg/kg BW of fucoidan (25% ethanol+FUCO500). Each group was fed orally two times per day for 15 days. Liver weights in the 25% ethanol group were increased compared to the control group, while liver weights in the 25% ethanol+FUCO500 group were significantly decreased compared to the 25% ethanol group (p<0.05). Plasma concentrations of triglyceride, cholesterol, and LDL-cholesterol were elevated in the 25% ethanol group; however, these levels in the 25% ethanol+FUCO250 group were significantly decreased compared to the 25% ethanol group (p<0.05). The glutamic-pyruvic transaminase activity of the 25% ethanol+FUCO500 group also was significantly lower than the 25% ethanol group (p<0.05). These results indicate that fucoidan might protect against acute alcohol-induced liver injury.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.41-49
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• 1979

By intraperitoneal administration of thioacetamide to rats, acute liver injury was produced. In these rats, the level of serum GOT and GPT activities showed a remarkable increase and the principal histopathologic change was centrilobular hepatic necrosis. In this study, combined administration of silymarin with promethazine hydrochloride to the rats with acute liver injury which was produced by thioacetamide inhibited the increase of serum transaminase activities and protected the histopathologic change, showing comparatively more improved results than simple administration of silymarin alone. On the basis of these results, it is suggested that promethazine hydrochloride potentiates the effectiveness of silymarin in acute thioacetamide hepatotoxicity of rats.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.139-149
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• 2010

The present study was carried out to elucidate whether an environmental strain of Cryptococcus neoformans (environmental C. neoformans) isolated from an environmental source in a park of Busan has an acute pathophysiological effect in rats. On the second day after peritoneal inoculation of environmental C. neoformans, adverse effects occurred from the viewpoint of hematology and biochemistry. Eosinophil damages and crystal formations were found in the blood. Disturbances in cytokines production were observed in the cerebral and pulmonary tissues. Fungal budding existed in the brain, lung, liver and kidney. Tissue injury findings such as inflammation, leukocyte infiltration, bleeding, or degeneration were found in the brain, lung, liver and kidney. The present data suggest that the environmental C. neoformans can cause systematically harmful effects even for short periods of infection (two days of cryptococcal infection) and the adverse effects are summarized as immune derangements and biochemical and/or histological dysfunction and injury on major organ such as the brain, lung, liver and kidney in the immunocompetent hosts. Further studies should be focused on comparing the differences between environmental and clinical strains of C. neoformans.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.323-328
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• 2006

Global gene expression profile was analyzed by microarray analysis of rat liver RNA after acute acetaminophen (APAP) administration. A single dose of 1g/kg body weight of APAP was given orally, and the liver samples were obtained after 24, 48 h, and 2 weeks. Histopathologic and biochemical studies enabled the classification of the APAP effect into injury (24 and 48 h) and regeneration (2 weeks) stages. The expression levels of 4900 clones on a custom rat gene microarray were analyzed and 484 clones were differentially expressed with more than a 1.625-fold difference(which equals 0.7 in log2 scale) at one or more time points. Two hundred ninety seven clones were classified as injury-specific clones, while 149 clones as regeneration-specific ones. Characteristic gene expression profiles could be associated with APAP-induced gene expression changes in lipid metabolism, stress response, and protein metabolism. We established a global gene expression profile utilizing microarray analysis in rat liver upon acute APAP administration with a full chronological profile that not only covers injury stage but also later point of regeneration stage.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.16-24
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• 2014

Objectives: Alcohol abuse is a public issue and one of the major causes of liver disease worldwide. This study was aimed at investigating the protective effect of Ganoderma lucidum pharmacopuncture (GLP) against hepatotoxicity induced by acute ethanol (EtOH) intoxication in rats. Methods: Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were divided into 4 groups of 8 animals each: normal, control, normal saline pharmacopuncture (NP) and GLP groups. The control, NP and GLP groups received ethanol orally. The NP and the GLP groups were treated daily with injections of normal saline and Ganoderma lucidum extract, respectively. The control group received no treatment. The rats in all groups, except the normal group, were intoxicated for 6 hours by oral administration of EtOH (6 g/kg BW). The same volume of distilled water was administered to the rats in the normal group. Two local acupoints were used: Qimen (LR14) and Taechung (LR3). A histopathological analysis was performed, and the liver function and the activities of antioxidant enzymes were assessed. Results: GLP treatment reduced the histological changes due to acute liver injury induced by EtOH and significantly reduced the increase in the alanine aminotransferase (ALT) enzyme; however, it had an insignificant effect in reducing the increase in aspartate aminotransferase (AST) enzyme. It also significantly ameliorated the superoxide dismutase (SOD) and the catalase (CAT) activities. Conclusion: The present study suggests that GLP treatment is effective in protecting against ethanol-induced acute hepatic injury in SD rats by modulating the activities of ethanol-metabolizing enzymes and by attenuating oxidative stress.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 2022.09a
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• pp.114-114
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• 2022

Excessive endogenous endotoxin, especially lipopolysaccharide (LPS) reflux from gastrointestinal (GI) tract to the liver tissue is one of the most serious reasons of severe and acute liver injury which is mainly mediated by Kupffer cell activations. However, there is no clear molecular clues to explain the exact pathophysiological mechanism and effective drugs available till nowadays. We aimed to comprehend the pathophysiological features of LPS-induced liver injury and evaluate the efficacies of potential therapeutic drug, Ga-mi-Yuk-Mi-Jihwang-Tang (GYM), which is composed of herbal plants. GYM remarkably caused to normalize hepatic inflammation and oxidations against LPS-induced liver injury by evidence of serum liver enzymes, histopathological analysis, both hepatic protein and gene expression levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, nitric oxide levels, and hepatic tissue levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, malondialdehyde (MDA), and 4-hydroxyneoneal, respectively. To assess molecular events in the hepatic tissue, we further found hepatic Sirtuin6 (Sirt6) levels were considerably depleted by LPS injection with aberrant alterations of Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathways, whereas administration with GYM notably exerted to normalize these abnormalities. Our results exhibited that GYM would be one of target drug to diminish hepatic inflammation as well as oxidative stress by regulation of hepatic Sirt6 levels.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.198-206
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• 2023

The effectiveness of the extracts of Alnus japonica and Portulaca oleracea, which are effective in improving alcohol-induced liver damage, was confirmed using acute and chronic alcoholic liver injury animal models. In the acute alcoholic liver injury model, dieting Alnus japonica and Portulaca oleracea complex (ALPOC) at a dose of 50 mg/kg showed no significant change in liver or body weight, while measured plasma ALT activity to be deficient (28.12 U/ml) compared to the alcohol intake group (42.5 U/ml), and confirmed that restored it to an average level. It showed an improvement of 34.9% compared to the alcohol intake group. AST activity confirmed that it showed a very effective liver protection activity by showing a gain of 12.6%. The chronic alcoholic liver damage animal model demonstrated that ALT showed an improvement effect of 25%, and AST showed an effect similar to that of the positive control group, Hovenia extract. In addition, through H&E staining analysis, observed that the ALPOC improved the necrosis and bleeding of the liver. And the ALPOC group showed intense antioxidant activity of 127% or more compared to the alcohol intake group, and this was confirmed to have a very high activity, which is more than 20% higher than that of the hovenia fruit extract.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.289-294
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• 1996

To evaluate an effect of acute ethanol pretreatment on the liver injury in toluene-treated rats, toluene(50% in olive oil) was intraperitoneally given four times at 0.3ml/100g body weight at interval of one day to the ethanol-pretreated rats(0.3ml of 50%/100g body weight). The increasing rate of liver weitht per body weight(%), serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activity, liver lipid peroxide content was higher in toluene treated rats pretreated with ehtanol than those treated with toluene alone. Concomitantly the hepatic glucose-6-phosphatase activity was increased whereas glutathione content was decreased by ehtanol pretreatment before toluene administration in rats. In case of direct administration of acetaldhyde or benzaldehyde to the rats, the liver weitht per body weight(%) and serum levels of ALT activity were almost higher than the control group. There results indicate that the toluene treated rats showed the reversible injury of liver and intensified. however, by the ethanol treatment.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.173-178
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• 2013

The protective effect of SAPP, an extract from a novel herbal complex, on acute liver injury was investigated using mouse animal model in this study. The content of total phenol in SAPP was increased at dose dependent manner. Consistent with the content of total phenol, SAPP showed the significant anti-oxidative effects on 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method. Acute liver injury was induced by D-galactosamine (D-GalN) in mouse. Treatment with SAPP significantly reduced the level of alanine transaminase (ALT) and aspartate transaminase (AST) in serum. Histological observation revealed that whereas D-GalN treated mouse showed vacuolization of hepatocytes, sinusoidal dilation and congestion, loss of cell boundaries and ballooning degeneration, loss of architecture and cell necrosis, treatment with SAPP improved D-GalN-induced liver injury. These results suggest that SAPP shows protective effects against D-GalN-induced hepatotoxicity in vivo acute mouse model.