Protective Effects of N-Acetylcysteine in Concanavalin A-Induced Hepatitis in Mice

• Published in: Mediators of Inflammation Vol. 2015; no. 2015; pp. 548 - 564-050
• Main Authors: Zhu, Rong, Yang, Jing, Zhang, Huawei, Wang, Junshan, Lu, Jie, Zhou, Ying-Qun, Guo, Chuan-Yong, Li, Sainan, Li, Jingjing, Chen, Kan, Wang, Fan, Weiqi, Dai, Zheng, Yuanyuan, Xia, Yujing, Wang, Chengfen, Yin, Qin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cairo, Egypt Hindawi Limiteds 01.01.2015; Hindawi Publishing Corporation; John Wiley & Sons, Inc; Hindawi Limited
• Subjects: Acetylcysteine; Acetylcysteine - pharmacology; Alanine Transaminase - blood; Animals; Apoptosis; Aspartate Aminotransferases - blood; Autophagy; Care and treatment; Concanavalin A - pharmacology; Cytokines; Cytokines - secretion; Enzymes; Free radicals; Gene expression; Hepatitis; Hepatitis - prevention & control; Inflammation; Ischemia; Kinases; Laboratory animals; Liver; Liver diseases; Male; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Metabolism; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Mice, Inbred C57BL; NF-kappa B - physiology; Physiological aspects; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt - metabolism; Signal Transduction - physiology; Tumor necrosis factor-TNF
• ISSN: 0962-9351; 1466-1861
• DOI: 10.1155/2015/189785

This study was designed to study the protective effects and mechanisms of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) in concanavalin A-induced hepatitis in mice. In this study, pretreatment with NAC ameliorated the histopathological changes and suppressed inflammatory cytokines in ConA-induced hepatitis. The expression of IL-2, IL-6, TNF-α, and IFN-γ was significantly reduced in the NAC-treated groups. NAC activated PI3K/Akt pathway and inhibited the activation of NF-κB. Additionally, NAC reduced autophagosome formation, as assessed by detecting the expression of LC3 and Beclin 1. Our results demonstrate that NAC can alleviate ConA-induced hepatitis by regulating the PI3K/Akt pathway and reducing the late stages of autophagy. Our results described a new pharmaceutical to provide more effective therapies for immune hepatitis.