Scope: Vine tea (Ampelopsis grossedentata), a traditional Chinese tea, has displayed various biological activities. The authors aim to investigate the effect of Vine Tea (Ampelopsis grossedentata) extract (VTE) on carbon tetrachlorid (CCl4 )induced acute liver injury (ALI) in mice and to explore the underlying role of gut microbiota during the treatment.
Methods and results: C57BL/6J mice injected with CCl4 are treated with VTE for 6 weeks. By using H&E staining, immunofluorescence staining, quantitative real-time (qRT)-PCR, and western blot, it is shown that VTE treatment significantly ameliorates hepatocyte necrosis, alleviates the mRNA levels of toll-like receptor 4 (Tlr4), interleukin (Il)-6, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), acetyl-CoA carboxylase 1 (Acc1), and increases the mRNA levels of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (Ppar-γ) and 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase (Hmg-coar) compared to the CCl4 group. Also, VTE abrogates the decreased mRNA expressions of zonula occludens-1 (Zo-1), Occludin, and Mucin1 in colon tissues. Using microbial 16S rDNA sequencing, VTE treatment significantly downregulates the abundances of some harmful intestinal bacteria like Helicobacter and Oscillibacter. In contrast, VTE upregulates the contents of several beneficial bacteria, such as Ruminococcaceae_UCG-014 and Eubacterium_fissicatena_group. Further, VTE fails to improve ALI in the mice with gut microbiota depletion using antibiotic treatment.
Conclusions: The studies suggest that VTE exhibits a protective effect against CCl4 -induced ALI in mice by alleviating hepatic inflammation, suppressing intestinal epithelial barrier injury, and restoring gut microbiota dysbiosis.
Keywords: CCl4; Vine Tea (Ampelopsis grossedentata); acute liver injury (ALI); gut microbiota; inflammation.
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