Abstract
Lipid accumulation, inflammatory responses and oxidative stress have been implicated in the pathology of alcohol-induced liver injury (ALI). In this work, we evaluated the effects of the functional food XingJiuTang (XJT) on ALI and explored the underlying mechanism. We used alcohol-stimulated human normal hepatocytes L02 for in vitro experiments, while for in vivo experiments, 55 % alcohol was intragastrically administrated to C57BL/6 mice at 16 mL/kg with pre-administration of bifendate and XJT. Liver histology and function, along with the inflammatory cytokines, oxidative mediators and SIRT1/Nrf-2 pathway were evaluated. The results showed that XJT treatment significantly alleviated ALI, ameliorated lipid peroxidation, improved the liver function impaired by alcohol and inhibited the hepatocytes apoptosis in vitro and in vivo. In addition, XJT treatment modulated the activation of the SIRT1/Nrf-2 signaling pathway and suppressed the overexpression of NOX4. Overall, the functional food XJT effectively protects against experimental ALI via activating the SIRT1/Nrf-2 pathway.