Effects And Mechanisms Of Chinese Traditional Medicine JinSanE On Experimental Fibrotic Liver In Rats

Objective: To investigate the effects of Chinese traditional compound decoction of Radix Curcumae, Rhizoma Sparganii, Rhizoma Zedoariae (JinSanE) on liver fibrosis in rats induced by carbon tetrachloride (CCI4). To study the mechanisms of JinSanE through observe the changes of expression of TGF-β1, TGFR I , TGFRII, Smad3 and Smad7 in the fibrotic livers in rats.Methods: Eighty Wistar rats were randomly divided into four groups, each group contained twenty rats, namely, healthy control group, model control group, JinSanE treatment group 1 and JinSanE treatment group 2. Except healthy control group, all groups were subcutaneously injected with CCl4 for eight weeks to induce rat liver fibrosis. The treatment group 1 and 2 were administrated with JinSanE (6g/kg) start at the first and fifth week respectively. All rats were sacrificed at the eighth week, the blood and livers of rats were collected for further examinations. The effects of JinSanE were evaluated by detections of the level of TGF-β1, TGFR I and TGFRII mRNA by RT-PCR, the expression and sites of TGF-β1, Smad3 and Smad7 in liver tissues by immunohistochemical stain. The liver function, the level of blood serum hyalauronic acid (HA), liver histopathology were also examined by biochemsitry, RIA, HE stain, electron microscopy and Van Gieson stain respectively.Results: Compared with model group, in rats that received JinSanE, the level of TGF-β1, TGFR I and TGFR II mRNA in liver tissues were significantly decreased (P<0.05 or P<0.01), the expressions of TGF-β1 and Smad3 in rat liver tissues were also significantly reduced, and the expression of Smad7 was obviously increased in the livers (P<0.05), the levels of serum ALT and AST were markedly diminished (P<0.05), HA content was considerably attenuated (P<0.05), the inter-hepatocytic spaces were diminution, the collagen fibrillar bundles were reduced in the perisinusoidal spaces, and the number of sinusoidal endothelial fenestrae was raised, the structure of hepatic lobules was tended to normal, the septal fibrosis was decreased, histology of liver was considerably attenuated (P<0.01). Compare with the JinSanE treatment group 2, the effects of JinSanE treatment group 1 was significantly improved (P<0.05).Conclusion: The Chinese traditional medicine JinSanE has protective effects on liver injury and can inhibit liver fibrosis in rats induced by CCl4. The mechanisms possibly contribute to its action of anti-inflammatory, in which potential mechanismsmay be associated with its effects of down-regulating TGF-β1, TGFR I , TGFRII and Smad3, up-regulating Smad7 and resulted in suppressing the activation of hepatic stellate cells. The effects of JinSanE treatment group 1 are significantly better than JinSanE treatment group 2.