Title:Albiflorin Alleviates Sepsis-induced Acute Liver Injury through
mTOR/p70S6K Pathway
Volume: 24
Issue: 3
Author(s): Yanan Liu, Lizhi Feng and Lan Yao*
Affiliation:
- Department of Critical Care Medicine, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, 238 Jiefang Road, Wuhan,
Hubei 430060, P.R. China
Keywords:
Sepsis, albiflorin, mouse model, mTOR/p70S6K, pathway, mortality rates.
Abstract:
Background: Sepsis often induces hepatic dysfunction and inflammation,
accounting for a significant increase in the incidence and mortality rates. To this end,
albiflorin (AF) has garnered enormous interest due to its potent anti-inflammatory activity.
However, the substantial effect of AF on sepsis-mediated acute liver injury (ALI),
along with its potential mechanism of action, remains to be explored.
Methods: An LPS-mediated primary hepatocyte injury cell model in vitro and a mouse
model of CLP-mediated sepsis in vivo were initially built to explore the effect of AF on
sepsis. Furthermore, the hepatocyte proliferation by CCK-8 assay in vitro and animal
survival analyses in vivo for the survival time of mice were carried out to determine an
appropriate concentration of AF. Then, flow cytometry, Western blot (WB), and TUNEL
staining analyses were performed to investigate the effect of AF on the apoptosis of
hepatocytes. Moreover, the expressions of various inflammatory factors by ELISA and
RT-qPCR analyses and oxidative stress by ROS, MDA, and SOD assays were determined.
Finally, the potential mechanism of AF alleviating the sepsis-mediated ALI via
the mTOR/p70S6K pathway was explored through WB analysis.
Results: AF treatment showed a significant increase in the viability of LPS-inhibited
mouse primary hepatocytes cells. Moreover, the animal survival analyses of the CLP
model mice group indicated a shorter survival time than the CLP+AF group. AF-treated
groups showed significantly decreased hepatocyte apoptosis, inflammatory factors,
and oxidative stress. Finally, AF exerted an effect by suppressing the mTOR/p70S6K
pathway.
Conclusion: In summary, these findings demonstrated that AF could effectively alleviate
sepsis-mediated ALI via the mTOR/p70S6K signaling pathway.
