Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Mar 28, 2020; 26(12): 1286-1297
Published online Mar 28, 2020. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i12.1286
Tamarix chinensis Lour inhibits chronic ethanol-induced liver injury in mice
Zhi-Dan Wang, Yu Zhang, Yi-Dan Dai, Ke Ren, Chen Han, Heng-Xiao Wang, Shuang-Qin Yi
Zhi-Dan Wang, Yi-Dan Dai, Ke Ren, Shuang-Qin Yi, Laboratory of Functional Morphology, Graduate School of Human Health Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo 116-8551, Japan
Yu Zhang, Chen Han, Heng-Xiao Wang, Institute of Basic Medicine, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan 250062, Shandong Province, China
Author contributions: Wang ZD and Zhang Y contributed equally to this study; Wang ZD and Wang HX designed the research; Wang ZD, Zhang Y and Dai YD performed the pathological analysis; Wang ZD, Zhang Y, Dai YD and Ren K performed all experiments, collected the data, and analyzed the data; Wang HX and Yi SQ performed the statistical analysis; Wang ZD and Zhang Y wrote the manuscript; Wang HX and Yi SQ reviewed the manuscript; All authors approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by the Innovation Project of Shandong Academy of Medical Science; the Science and Technology Major Project of Shandong province, No. 2015ZDJS03002.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All animal experiments were performed in strict accordance with the guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the Institute of Basic Medicine, Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences. The experimental protocols were approved by the animal ethics committee of the Institute of Basic Medicine, Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences (07/2016). All efforts were made to minimize animal suffering.
Conflict-of-interest statement: We wish to confirm that there are no known conflicts of interest associated with this publication and there has been no significant financial support for this work that could have influenced its outcome.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Shuang-Qin Yi, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Frontier Health Sciences, Graduate School of Human Health Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 7-2-10, Higashiogu, Arakawa-ku, 116-8551 Tokyo, Japan. yittmniu@tmu.ac.jp
Received: November 5, 2019
Peer-review started: November 5, 2019
First decision: December 5, 2019
Revised: January 8, 2020
Accepted: February 28, 2020
Article in press: February 28, 2020
Published online: March 28, 2020
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Tamarix chinensis Lour (TCL) is a shrub that usually grows in arid or semiarid desert areas and saline-alkali fields. It is a traditional Chinese herbal medicine with hepatoprotective, antioxidant, antibacterial, and antitumor activities.

Research motivation

To investigate the possible protective effects of TCL against liver injury induced by chronic ethanol intake.

Research objectives

Eighty C57BL/6J male mice (8-10 wk old) were purchased from Beijing HFK Bioscience Co. Ltd. (Beijing, China).

Research methods

The mice were randomly assigned to the following 5 groups: Control (Ctrl) group, ethanol (EtOH) group, reduced glutathione (GSH) group as the positive Ctrl (EtOH + GSH at 86 mg/kg BW), and two TCL groups (EtOH + TCL-L at 100 mg/kg BW and EtOH+TCL-H at 200 mg/kg BW). Histological examination of the liver was done after staining sections with hematoxylin-eosin. Alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase are commonly used as biochemical indicators of liver injury. TCL inhibits hepatic expression of NOD-like receptor family, pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3), apoptosis-associated speck-like protein (ASC), caspase-1, and interleukin (IL)-1β at the transcriptional and protein levels by Western blotting. Hepatic expression of NLRP3, ASC, caspase-1 and IL-1β mRNA was also measured by quantitative PCR. Hepatic lymphocytes were isolated by Discontinuous Percoll Gradient Centrifugation and immunostained with fluorescent antibodies (FITC-CD3 and PE-CY7-NK1.1). Fluorescence was detected by using a BD FACS caliber flow cytometry and data were analyzed with FLOW JO 7.6.1software. Liver homogenate was prepared and hepatic tissue levels of reactive oxygen species, malondialdehyde, and superoxide dismutase were determined by using commercial assay kits (Nanjing Jiancheng Bioengineering Institute, Nanjing, China). Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS 22.0 software. Values are expressed as the mean ± standard deviation. Between-group comparisons were evaluated by one-way analysis of variance (with Dunnett's test and Bonferroni's multiple comparison test). Statistical significance was established at P < 0.05. All experiments were performed at least in triplicate.

Research results

Compared with the ethanol group, mice in the TCL-treated group (200 mg/kg) had significantly lower serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (mean, 34.1 IU/L vs 45.3 IU/L, P < 0.01) and aspartate aminotransferase (mean, 89.6 IU/L vs 115.7 IU/L, P < 0.01), as well as marked reduction of hepatic tissue reactive oxygen species (decreased by 27.5%, P < 0.01) and malondialdehyde (decreased by 76.6%, P < 0.01) levels, with a significant increase of superoxide dismutase (Increased by 73.2%, P < 0.01). Expression of the NLRP3 inflammasome and its downstream cytokines (IL-1β, tumor necrosis factor-α, and IL-6), and recruitment of natural killer T cells to the liver, were reduced in the TCL-treated incubation with a Lieber-DeCaril ethanol lipid diet group.

Research conclusions

These findings suggest that a TCL extract (200 mg/kg) protects against chronic ethanol-induced liver injury, probably by inhibiting the NLRP3-caspase-1-IL-1β signaling pathway and suppressing oxidative stress.

Research perspectives

Our findings provide information that TCL may be a potential candidate for prevention and treatment of ethanol-induced liver damage.