Protective Effects and Action Mechanism of Total Flavonoids of POLYGONI PERFOLIATI HERBA on Rats with Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis.

[Objectives] To study the protective effects and mechanism of POLYGONI PERFOLIATI HERBA on rats with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). [Methods] Sixty rats were randomly divided into normal group, model group, metformin group (0.5 mg/kg), and high dose, medium dose, and low dose groups of total flavonoids of POLYGONI PERFOLIATI HERBA (600, 300, 150 mg kg). The standard feed was given to the normal group, and the model group and the total flavonoids groups were fed with high-fat diet for 13 weeks to establish the NASH rat model. At the 8th week, the metformin group and the POLYGONI PERFOLIATI HERBA total flavonoids groups were given with the corresponding drug treatment for 6 weeks, blood was taken from the eyeball to collect liver tissue. Biochemical method was used to determine ALT, AST, TC, TG, HDL-c, LDL-c, SOD, MDA, GSH-Px activity or content in serum and HOMA-IR, and ELISA was used to measure the TNF-oi, IL-1 $ and IL -6 content in liver tiisue; Western blotting was used to detect the expression levels of AMPK, p-AMPK and ACC in liver tiisue. [Results] Total flavonoids of POLYGONI PERFOLIATI HERBA could significantly decrease the activity or content of ALT, AST and MDA in serum of NASH rat (P < 0.05, P < 0.01), and enhance the activity of SOD and GSH-Px (P < 0.05, P < 0.01), reduce serumTC, TG, LDL-c levels and insulin resistance index, increase HDL-c levels (P < 0.05, P < 0.01); down-regulate liver IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, ACC levels and up-regulate p-AMPK expression (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). [Conclusions] The total flavonoids of POLYGONI PERFOLIATI HERBA have a good protective effect on NASH rats, and its mechanism may be related to the functons of regulating the lipid metabolism, aHeviating insulin resistance, inhibiting oxidative stress, inhibiting inflammatory reaction and regulating AMPK and ACC protein expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]