Probing Liver Injuries Induced by Thioacetamide in Human In Vitro Pooled Hepatocyte Experiments

Acute toxicity and hepatoprotective effect of Arum maculatum on rat liver cirrhosis induced with thioacetamide

Arum maculatum is a medicinal plant that has been employed in traditional medicine for treating liver diseases. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the hepatoprotective impacts of ethanolic extract of the A. maculatum leaves on cirrhosis induced by thioacetamide (TAA) in Sprague--Dawley rats. The rats were treated for two months with thioacetamide (TAA) administered intraperitoneally thrice weekly. Histopathological examination revealed severe liver damage in the thioacetamide control group, while the silymarin treatments (p < 0.05). Furthermore, A. maculatum treatment led to the normalization of pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α and IL-6, and increased expression of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 (p < 0.05). Thus, A. maculatum leaves might have a hepatoprotective role in rat liver cirrhosis induced by TAA, along with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.

Protective effect of hydroxysafflor yellow a on thioacetamide-induced liver injury and osteopenia in zebrafish

Hydroxysafflor yellow A (HSYA) is the main water-soluble compound of safflower. It is commonly used in liver disease treatment and has anti-osteoporotic activity. However, the specific mechanism of HSYA is not yet fully understood. Thioacetamide (TAA) has toxic effects on the liver and is widely used in establishing animal models of cirrhosis and liver fibrosis. In research of liver-related diseases and bone deformation in vivo, the zebrafish has become a frequently utilized animal model. In establishing a TAA-induced zebrafish liver injury model, we found that TAA-induced zebrafish also developed osteopenia. The aim of our study is to investigate the protective effect of HSYA on TAA-induced liver injury and osteopenia in zebrafish. The findings demonstrated that HSYA alleviated hepatic oxidative stress, inhibited the release of inflammatory factors, and promoted in vivo skeletal mineralization in zebrafish larvae. Further Real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction and Western blotting analyses showed that HSYA altered the expression levels of SIRT1, HMGB1, TLR4, MYD88 and NF-ΚB, ameliorated TAA-induced liver injury, reduced the release of inflammation-related factors IL-6, IL-1β, TNF-α, regulated the ratio of RANKL/OPG, ameliorated TAA-induced osteopenia. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that HSYA exhibited a noteworthy beneficial influence on TAA-induced liver injury and osteopenia in zebrafish, this finding provide a foundation for the application of HSYA in clinical research.