Ursolic acid ameliorates CCl4‐induced liver fibrosis through the NOXs/ROS pathway |
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| Authors: | Dakai Gan Wang Zhang Chenkai Huang Jiang Chen Wenhua He Anjiang Wang Bimin Li Xuan Zhu |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department One of Liver Disease, The Ninth Hospital of Nanchang, Nanchang, People's Republic of China;2. Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, People's Republic of China |
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| Abstract: | Liver fibrosis is a reversible wound‐healing response that occurs after liver injury. NADPH oxidases (NOXs) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) which are expressed in hepatocytes (HCs), hepatic stellate cells (HSCs), and Kupffer cells (KCs) play an important role in the development of hepatic fibrosis. In in vitro studies, we had shown that ursolic acid (UA) could reverse liver fibrosis by inhibiting the activation of NOX‐mediated fibrotic signaling networks in HSCs. In this study, we verified that UA could alleviate CCl4‐induced liver fibrosis by reducing the expression of NOXs/ROS in HCs, HSCs, KCs. Meanwhile, the phagocytic index α and clearance index K which represent phagocytosis of KCs were unchanged. Together, all our data demonstrated that UA induced the proliferation of HCs, promoted apoptosis in HSCs, and prevented activation of KCs in vivo by reducing the expression of NOXs/ROS in HCs, HSCs, KCs. Besides, UA had no effect on the host defense function. |
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| Keywords: | hepatic stellate cells hepatocytes Kupffer cells ursolic acid |
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