The Protective Effects Of Polysaccharides Of Opuntia Dillenii Haw On Acute Liver-injured Mice

hepatitis is a pathological changes of liver cell damage that is induced by all kinds ofdeleterious factor.It can develop chronic liver disease,including liver fibrosis, hepatocirrhosis,liver cancer, and so on. At present, specific medicines are still deficient which can obviouslyalleviate hepatic injury and accelerate liver cell regeneration.Therefore, it has already arisenwidely recognition from domestic and overseas related researchers how to prevent and curediversifiedliver deseases. The clinic use of Opuntia dillenii Haw.is extensive.OPS is one ofeffective components in Opuntia dillenii Haw. that has meditative effect. We have investigatedthe protective effects of OPS on acute liver-injured mice induced by CCl₄ and researched thepossible protective mechanisms.OPS solution was given by intragstric injection 30 d,one times per day. Acute liver injury ofmice were induced by intraperitoneal adminstration of 0.1% CCl₄ (20 mL/kg) two hours after thelast administration.Thereafter,the activities of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartateaminotransferase (AST), and the contents of albumin (Alb), total cholesterol (TC) in serum weredetermined 18 h after intraperitoneal adminstration. Then the contents of malondialdehyde (MDA)and glutathione (GSH), and the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathionereductase(GR), glutathione S-transferase(GST),Glutathione peroxidase(GSH-Px) in liver weremeasured. In addition,liver index was detected,too. The main results were as follows:1. OPS could suppress remarkablely the increase of the activities ALT and AST in serum fromliver damage of mice induced by CCl₄. The both difference of OPS high dose group reachedsignificant level(P＜0.01) compared with model group. Pathological test showed that OPS highdose group could alleviate obviously liver tissue pathological changes.2. OPS increase albumin content evidently(P＜0.01), but have no evident effect of depressingliver index.3. OPS could decrease significantly MDA content and increase SOD activity in liver fromliver-injured mice. The both difference of OPS medium dose group reached significant level(P＜0.01) compared with model group.4. OPS could increase significantly liver GSH content and the activities of GR, GST andGSH-Px from liver-injured mice. GST activity returned to and GSH-Px activity exceeded naturallevel. GR activity was three times as much as normal. These results suggested that OPS had remarkable protective effects on CCl₄-induced acuteliver damage of mice. The mechanisms of protection might related to that OPS increased theanti-oxcidation activities.