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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 7, 2016; 22(1): 37-49
Published online Jan 7, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i1.37
Relationships among alcoholic liver disease, antioxidants, and antioxidant enzymes
Kyu-Ho Han, Naoto Hashimoto, Michihiro Fukushima
Kyu-Ho Han, Michihiro Fukushima, Department of Food Science, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Inada, Obihiro, Hokkaido 080-8555, Japan
Naoto Hashimoto, Upland Farming Resource Research Division, NARO Hokkaido Agricultural Research Center, Kasai, Hokkaido 082-0071, Japan
Author contributions: Han KH and Hashimoto N contributed to the collection of references and writing this manuscript; Hashimoto N and Fukushima M were responsible for the organization and revision of this manuscript.
Supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 25450196 and grants-in-aid from The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest related to this review.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (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/
Correspondence to: Naoto Hashimoto, PhD, Upland Farming Resource Research Division, NARO Hokkaido Agricultural Research Center, Minami 9-4, Shinsei, Memuro, Kasai, Hokkaido 082-0071, Japan. hasshy@affrc.go.jp
Telephone: +81-155-629278 Fax: +81-155-612127
Received: April 24, 2015
Peer-review started: April 24, 2015
First decision: June 2, 2015
Revised: June 25, 2015
Accepted: September 2, 2015
Article in press: September 2, 2015
Published online: January 7, 2016
Core Tip

Core tip: The metabolic process of ethanol generates reactive oxygen species, which play a significant role in the deterioration of alcoholic liver disease (ALD). Antioxidant phytochemicals, such as polyphenols, upregulate the expression of antioxidant enzymes and peptides via the Kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1-NF-E2-related factor-2 pathway, which leads to antioxidant responsive elements in animal models. Furthermore, these antioxidants alleviate cell injury caused by oxidants or inflammatory cytokines via impairment of hyperactivation of mitogen-activating protein kinase pathways, similar to preconditioning in ischemia-reperfusion models. Although the relationship between plant antioxidants and ALD has not been adequately investigated, plant antioxidants may be preventive for ALD.