Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Puerarin mitigates acute liver injury in septic rats by regulating proinflammatory factors and oxidative stress levels

Jinan Zheng¹ , Qing Huang¹, Jingjing Fang²

¹Department of Emergency, Affiliated Hospital of Medical College of Ningbo University, Ningbo 315000, Zhejiang Province, China; ²Department of Intensive Care Unit, Affiliated Hospital of Medical College of Ningbo University, Ningbo 315000, Zhejiang Province, China.

For correspondence:- Jinan Zheng Email: wutv74@163.com

Accepted: 22 October 2021 Published: 30 November 2021

Citation: Zheng J, Huang Q, Fang J. Puerarin mitigates acute liver injury in septic rats by regulating proinflammatory factors and oxidative stress levels. Trop J Pharm Res 2021; 20(11):2305-2310 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v20i11.11

© 2021 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To determine the protective effect of puerarin against acute liver injury in septic rats, and the mechanism involved

Methods: Eighty-seven Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were assigned to control, sepsis and puerarin groups (each having 29 rats). Serum levels of NF-kB, TNF-α, IL-1 β, IL-6, ALT and AST were assayed. Liver lesions and levels of NO, SOD, iNOS and malondialdehyde (MDA) were measured using standard procedures.

Results: Compared with the control group, the levels of NF-kB, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, AST, ALT, NO, MDA and iNOS significantly increased in the sepsis group, while SOD level decreased significantly. In contrast, there were marked decreases in NF-kB, TNF-α, IL-1β, AST, ALT, NO, MDA and iNOS in puerarin group, relative to the sepsis group, while SOD expression level was significantly increased (p < 0.05). The level of p-p38 in liver of septic rats was up-regulated, relative to control rats, while Nrf2 significantly decreased (p < 0.05). The expression level of p-p38 in the puerarin group was significantly decreased, relative to the sepsis group, while the expression level of Nrf2 significantly increased (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Puerarin mitigates acute liver injury in septic rats by inhibiting NF-kB and p38 signaling pathway, down-regulating proinflammatory factors, and suppressing oxidative stress. Thus, puerarin may be developed for use in the treatment liver injury.

Keywords: Puerarin, Proinflammatory factors, Oxidative stress, Sepsis, Acute liver injury