Abstract:This study aimed to examine the hepatoprotective effects of phloretin on acute liver damage induced by thioacetamide(TAA) in Kunming mice. Quercetin was used as the positive control drug. The hepatoprotective effect was studied by means of serological index, including the serum levels of alanine aminotransferas(ALT), aspartate aminotransferase(AST), γ--glutamyl transferase(γ-GT), alkaline phosphatase(ALP), and total bilirubin(TB), as well as the histopathological changes. In the groups with high and low doses of phloretin, the serum ALT activity was (149.14±21.55) U/L and (189.43±16.64) U/L, respectively, and the serum AST activity was (123.58±35.90) U/L and (168.64±33.32) U/L, respectively. The serum γ-GT activity was (103.19±20.93) U/L and (129.30±27.91) U/L, respectively, and the ALP activity was (19.67±3.32) King U/dL and (24.17±3.58) King U/dL, respectively. The total serum bilirubin contents were (198.14±29.64) mol/L and (227.04±34.20) mol/L, respectively. Compared with the model group, phloretin significantly prevented the increase in serum ALT, AST, γ-GT, ALP and TB in acute liver damage induced by TAA(n-=8, p-<0.05), and the decrease was dose-dependent. A significant reduction was produced in the histopathological hepatic lesions. The results showed that phloretin had good hepatoprotective activity on acute liver injury induced by thioacetamide in mice, and it could be considered as a candidate drug and food additive worthy of further study.
