ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Ethnopharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1583334
Protective Effects of Atractylodes Macrocephala Polysaccharides on Acetaminophen-Induced Liver Injury
Provisionally accepted
- Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, China
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Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is a major clinical concern due to its unpredictable nature and lack of effective therapeutic options. This study investigated the hepatoprotective effects of Atractylodes macrocephala polysaccharides (AMPs) in a mouse model of acetaminophen (APAP)-induced liver injury. Mice were pretreated with AMPs for 7 days prior to APAP challenge, and liver injury was evaluated through histopathology, serum biochemistry, molecular assays, and gut microbiota analysis.AMPs treatment significantly reduced serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels compared to the APAP group (p< 0.05). Hepatic oxidative stress was alleviated, as indicated by increased levels of glutathione (GSH, p<0.05) and superoxide dismutase (SOD, p<0.05), and reduced malondialdehyde (MDA, p<0.05).AMPs also suppressed inflammatory cytokines, including Il-1β, Tnf-α, Il-6, and Nlrp3 (p< 0.05), and modulated apoptosis-related proteins by downregulating Bax and upregulating Bcl-2 and Bcl-xl expression (p<0.05).Furthermore, AMPs improved gut microbiota diversity and enriched beneficial genera such as Roseburia, as revealed by 16S rDNA sequencing. Fecal microbiota transplantation from AMPs-treated mice replicated these hepatoprotective effects, highlighting the involvement of the gut-liver axis.
Keywords: Hepatoprotection, Herbal polysaccharides, intestinal microbiota, Oxidative Stress, NLRP3 inflammasome
Received: 12 Mar 2025; Accepted: 29 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wu, Gong, Jia, Li, Wang, Huang and Guo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jiali Wu, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, China
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