Effects of Puerariae Radix Extract on Endotoxin Receptors and TNF-α Expression Induced by Gut-Derived Endotoxin in Chronic Alcoholic Liver Injury

• Published in: Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine Vol. 2012; no. 2012; pp. 1 - 12
• Main Authors: Hu, Yi-Yang, Xu, Lin, Chen, Liang, Huang, Fu, Sun, Zhao-Lin, Cui, Tuan, Peng, Jing-hua, Feng, Qin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cairo, Egypt Hindawi Publishing Corporation 01.01.2012; Hindawi Limited
• Subjects: Abuse; Activation; Alanine; Alanine transaminase; Alcohol abuse; Alcoholic beverages; Alcoholism; Alcohols; Aspartate aminotransferase; CD14 antigen; Chinese medicine; Cytokines; Drug abuse; Drug dosages; Ethanol; Gangrene; Gene expression; Gram-negative bacteria; Herbal medicine; Immunology; Kupffer cells; Laboratory animals; Lipids; Lipopolysaccharides; Liver; Liver diseases; Macrophages; Medicinal plants; Permeability; Plant tissues; Proteins; Pueraria lobata; Rats; Rodents; TLR4 protein; Toll-like receptors; Traditional Chinese medicine; Tumor necrosis factor; Tumor necrosis factor-TNF; Tumor necrosis factor-α; γ-Glutamyltransferase; China
• ISSN: 1741-427X; 1741-4288
• DOI: 10.1155/2012/234987

Kudzu (Pueraria lobata) is one of the earliest medicinal plants used to treat alcohol abuse in traditional Chinese medicine for more than a millennium. However, little is known about its effects on chronic alcoholic liver injury. Therefore, the present study observed the effects of puerariae radix extract (RPE) on chronic alcoholic liver injury as well as Kupffer cells (KCs) activation to release tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) induced by gut-derived endotoxin in rats and macrophage cell line. RPE was observed to alleviate the pathological changes and lipids deposition in liver tissues as well as the serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and hepatic gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) activity. Meanwhile, RPE inhibited KCs activation and subsequent hepatic TNF-α expression and downregulated the protein expression of endotoxin receptors, lipopolysaccharide binding protein (LBP), CD14, Toll-like receptor (TLR) 2, and TLR4 in chronic alcohol intake rats. Furthermore, an in vitro study showed that RPE inhibited the expression of TNF-α and endotoxin receptors, CD14 and TLR4, induced by LPS in RAW264.7 cells. In summary, this study demonstrated that RPE mitigated liver damage and lipid deposition induced by chronic alcohol intake in rats, as well as TNF-α release, protein expression of endotoxin receptors in vivo or in vitro.