A Preliminary Study on the Effect of Hydrogen Gas on Alleviating Early CCl 4 -Induced Chronic Liver Injury in Rats.
Jianwei WangQuancheng ChengJinyu FangHuiru DingHuaicun LiuXuan FangChunhua ChenWei-Guang ZhangPublished in: Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) (2021)
As a small-molecule reductant substance, hydrogen gas has an obvious antioxidant function. It can selectively neutralize hydroxyl radicals ( • OH) and peroxynitrite (ONOO • ) in cells, reducing oxidative stress damage. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of hydrogen gas (3%) on early chronic liver injury (CLI) induced by CCl 4 and to preliminarily explore the protective mechanism of hydrogen gas on hepatocytes by observing the expression of uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) in liver tissue. Here, 32 rats were divided into four groups: the control group, CCl 4 group, H 2 (hydrogen gas) group, and CCl 4 + H 2 group. The effect of hydrogen gas on early CLI was observed by serological tests, ELISA, hematoxylin and eosin staining, and oil red O staining. Immunohistochemical staining and Western blotting were used to observe the expression of UCP2 in liver tissues. We found that CCl 4 can induce significant steatosis in hepatocytes. When the hydrogen gas was inhaled, hepatocyte steatosis was reduced, and the UCP2 expression level in liver tissue was increased. These results suggest that hydrogen gas might upregulate UCP2 expression levels, reduce the generation of intracellular oxygen free radicals, affect lipid metabolism in liver cells, and play a protective role in liver cells.
Keyphrases
- liver injury
- drug induced
- room temperature
- induced apoptosis
- oxidative stress
- poor prognosis
- small molecule
- carbon dioxide
- cell cycle arrest
- liver fibrosis
- visible light
- signaling pathway
- insulin resistance
- type diabetes
- high fat diet
- dna damage
- south africa
- nitric oxide
- cell proliferation
- endothelial cells
- heat shock protein