Rice Bran Sterol Ameliorates Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis In Rats

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis(NASH) is the second stage of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD) course, NASH is the key link between nonalcoholic simple fatty liver(NAFL) and fibrosis&cirrhosis. NASH can be recovered to NAFL if given appropriate prevention and treatment, otherwise, it will evolve to fibrosis, even cirrhosis. Present research have not elaborate the pathogenesis of NASH,"two-hit" theory is the most popular explanation:Lipid accumulation and oxidative damage are the pathogenic factors. Rice bran sterol have many biological activity:regulating blood lipids, antioxidant function and resisting insulin resistance, etc. Consider the biological nature of rice bran sterol, we expect that rice bran sterol can prevent NASH.We assigned50male SD rats randomly to control group、NASH group and three dosage levels of RBS treatment groups:65mg/kg,130mg/kg,195mg/kg, NASH group and RBS treatment groups were fed with high-cholesterol diet and the RBS groups were intervened by RBS gavages at the same time,2%Tween-80was added to help solubility of RBS. After13weeks, we detected serum lipids of total cholesterol(TC)、triglyceride(TG)、high density lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL-C)、 low density lipoprotein cholesterol(LDL-C)、oxidized-low density lipoprotein(ox-LDL) and serum relevant enzyme activities of glutamic-pyruvic transaminase(ALT)、glutamic-oxalacetic transaminease(AST)、nitric oxide synthetase(NOS)、superoxide dismutase(SOD), and organ indexes were compared between each group. There was severe steatosis in NASH group observed through liver pathological slice. Serum ox-LDL、HDL-C、SOD、NOS、ALT and AST levels of NASH group conspicuous disordered than those parameters in the control group. Serum HDL-C level of RBS middle-dose group were significantly increased (P<0.05), Serum ALT levels of all RBS treatment groups were decreased (P<0.001), while AST/ALT were increased vs. NASH group (P<0.01); Serum SOD、ox-LDL and NOS of RBS low-dose group were significantly decreased compared with NASH group.Conclusion:13weeks of high-fat diet successfully reproduce the model of NASH rats, and moderate dosage of rice bran sterol ameliorated NASH in rats caused by long-term high-cholesterol diet.