Abstract:
Liver fibrosis is a common stage in the progression of chronic liver diseases, yet there is a lack of clinical drugs against liver fibrosis globally.
Gynostemma pentaphyllum has the name of "Southern ginseng", commonly used in folk prevention and treatment of a variety of chronic liver disease, there are also reports of its anti-hepatic fibrosis. However, there are fewer relevant scientific studies. In this study, we used LC-MS metabolomics analysis to investigate the effects of
Gynostemma pentaphyllum ethanol extract (GPE) on liver fibrosis in carbon tetrachloride (CCl
4)-induced mouse models and its potential mechanisms. All animal experiments were approved by the experimental animal ethics committee of Capital Medical University (DWLLGZR202202204). The results showed that GPE could significantly reduce the inflammatory cell infiltration and collagen accumulation in the liver of model mice, significantly reduce serum alanine transaminase and aspartate transaminase activity and hypoxanthine levels in mice, and could effectively inhibit the gene transcription and protein expression of collagen 1A1 (COL 1A1) and
α-smooth muscle actin (
α-SMA). Non-targeted metabolomics analysis of the liver showed that GPE mainly affected 47 differential metabolites; KEGG pathway enrichment analysis indicated that the differential metabolites were mainly enriched in the fructose/mannose metabolism and aromatic amino acid metabolism pathways. The targeted metabolomic assay was further used to validate a total of 13 differential metabolites of
D-mannose, mannose 6-phosphate,
D-fructose, fructose 2-phosphate,
D-sucrose, trehalose, glutamate, phenylalanine, tyrosine,
L-2-amino-3-oxobutyric acid, lactate, 2-hydroxybutyrate, and taurine, which may be important metabolites related to GPE's anti-fibrotic effects. This confirms that GPE's anti-liver fibrosis effects may be closely related to the regulation of the fructose/mannose metabolism pathway and the aromatic amino acid metabolism pathway.