Effects of glycyrrhizinate on apoptosis of hepatocytes in rat acute liver failure model

Objective To explore the effects of glycyrrhizinate on apoptosis of hepatocytes in the rats with acute liver failure.Methods Sixty healthy female Wistar rats were randomly divided into 3 groups:experimental group,control group,and normal control group (n =20 in each group).The rats were injected intraperitoneally with D-galactosamine (D-Gal) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to create the model of acute liver failure.Three h prior to the injection,the rats in experimental group were intragastrically administered diammonium glycyrrhizinate enteric-coated capsules.Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and TdT-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) were carried out to detect serum tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and apoptotic cells of the rats at different time points after injection respectively.Results In experiment and control groups,TUNEL-positive cells appeared at 4 h and 6 h after injection respectively,and reached a peak at 12 h synchronously.The apoptotic index in the experiment group was (5.23 ± 0.28) ％,significantly lower than in the control group [(29.46 ± 0.97) ％] (P ＜ 0.05).In experiment and control groups,the serum TNF-α was increased at 2 h and reached a peak at 8 h after injection synchronously.The serum TNF-α in the experiment group was (510.78 ±93.68) μg/L,significantly different from that in the control group [(532.53 ± 89.77) μg/L] (P ＞ 0.05).Conclusion Glycyrrhizinate enteric-coated capsules can reduce apoptosis of hepatocytes in rats with acute liver failure,which is not achieved by reducing the concentrations of TNF-α in serum. Key words: Acute liver failure;  Glycyrrhizinate;  Apoptosis;  Tumor necrosis factor-α