| Abstract |
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a major health problem worldwide, and it has increasing prevalence in parallel with the global rise in diabetes and obesity. This study aimed to investigate the effect of ethanolic extract of Pluchea indica leaf (PIE) on hepatic fat accumulation, and to explore underlying mechanism of PIE against NAFLD in high fat-high fructose diet (HFFD)-induced obese rats. The NAFLD was induced by feeding the rats with HFFD (40% lard and 20% fructose) and 10% fructose in drinking water for 16 weeks. Distilled water (control group) or PIE (100 or 300 mg/kg/day) or pioglitazone (10 mg/kg/day) (n=6 for each group) were orally administered from the week 11 to 16. At the end of treatments, fasting blood glucose, oral glucose tolerance, serum insulin level, HOMA-IR, and hepatic TG content were determined. Liver histology and expression of lipogenesis-associated genes were examined. HFFD control rats had a significance increases in body weight gain, fasting blood glucose, glucose intolerance, serum insulin level, and HOMA-IR score compared to the normal diet (ND) control rats (p<0.05), which indicated an obese and insulin resistant conditions. PIE (100 or 300 mg/kg/day) treatment significantly exhibited anti-insulin resistant and weight-reducing effects. Remarkably, the HFFD control rats exhibited significant increases in hepatic TG content and lipid droplet accumulation, and had a marked upregulation expression of hepatic lipogenic genes: SREBP-1c, FAS, and GPAT1 compared to the ND control rats (p<0.05). Interestingly, PIE (100 or 300 mg/kg/day) treatment significantly reduced hepatic TG level (76.07 and 56.25%, respectively) and accumulation of large lipid droplets and downregulated the expression of those lipogenic genes compared to the HFFD control group (p<0.05). However, our findings indicated effects of two doses of PIE are in a non-dose-dependent manner. In conclusion, our study demonstrates that PIE significantly ameliorates NAFLD by suppressing expression of lipogenesis-related genes. |
Publication
Journal Publication
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