PREVENTIVE EFFECTS OF BORAGE OIL AND LING-ZHI-8 PROTEIN ON CARBON TETRACHLORIDE-INDUCED ACUTE HEPATIC TOXICITY IN RATS

摘要

Liver diseases are the leading causes of death in most Western and Asian countries. Using carbon tetrachloride (CClJ-stimulated rats as a model of acute hepatic inflammation, this study evaluated the hepatoprotective properties of two anti-inflammatory/immunomodulatory agents, borage oil (BO) and Ling-Zhi-8 (LZ-8), which is a small-molecular-weight protein extracted from Ganoderma lucidum. Ingested BO modified the fatty acid composition of hepatic phospholipids, in particular by increasing the arachidonic acid (AA)proportion by 9.2% relative to the CCl4-stimulated control; however, no such modulatory effect was found in rats fed LZ-8 alone* Histologic and biochemical analyses confirmed that CCl4 treatment alone caused mild to moderate acute inflammation. Oral administration of BO or LZ-8 prior to CCl4 treatment markedly reduced hepatic injury as evidenced by a lowering of the serum levels of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (52.0%), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (34.9%), prostaglandin E2 (PGEJ (67.2%) and type-2 cyclooxygenase (COX-2) (39.9%). Furthermore, BO and LZ-8 in combination provided a greater hepatoprotective effect. In conclusion, this study shows that BO and LZ-8 protect against CCl4-induced inflammation in a CCl4 rat model by reducing the production of pro-inflammatory mediators.