Protective Effect Of Ganoderma Lucidum Spore Powder On Acute Liver Injury Induced By Cadmium In Rats

Objective:To investigate the protective effect of Ganoderma lucidum spore powder on acute liver injury induced by cadmium in rats.Methods:Male SD rats were randomly divided into 6 groups(n=10):control group(NC group),cadmium alone group(Cd),cadmium with ganoderma lucidum spore powder(GLS)low dose group(Cd+GLS_L),medium Dose group(Cd+GLS_M),high dose group(Cd+GLS_H)and GLS high dose group(GLSH).Groups received different doses of cadmium with GLS before cadmium were intragastrically administered with GLS once a day for 7 days.NC and Cd groups were given an equal volume of 0.9%normal saline.After 8 hours of the last administration.Rats in Cd and three cadmium plus GLS groups were injected intraperitoneally with 3.7 mg/kg cadmium chloride solution,and NC group and GLSH group were injected with equal volume of 0.9%normal saline.After cadmium staining for 8h,the serum alanine aminotransferase(ALT)and aspartate aminotransferase(AST)were detected by automatic biochemical analyzer.The histopathological changes of liver tissue were observed by light microscopy.The expression of VEGF,MT and Bad were detected by immunohistochemistry and protein printing.The mRNA expressions of MT,VEGF and Bad in rat liver were detected by RT-PCR.The content of Cd in liver tissue was detected by atomic absorption spectrometry.Results:Compared with NC group and GLSH groups,AST and ALT were significantly increased in Cd group(P<0.05).Compared with the Cd group,AST and ALT decreased in GLSH groups(P<0.05).The content of Cd in the liver was decreased in different doses of Ganoderma lucidum spore powder(P<0.05).The expression of VEGF and Bad in Cd group were significantly higher than that in NC group and GLSH group(P<0.05).Compared with the Cd group,the expression levels of VEGF and Bad in each dose group treated with GLS decreased gradually with the increase of GLS dose(P<0.05).Compared with the NC group,the expression of MT in the Cd group,the GLS intervention group and the GLSH group were significantly increased(P<0.05),and the MT expression in the GLSH group was the most obvious.Compared with the GLSH group,the expression of MT in each dose group treated with GLS decreased to different degrees(P<0.05).The results of RT-PCR showed that the expression of MT in GLSH group was up-regulated,which was 6.3 times higher than that in NC group.Compared with Cd group,the expression of MT mRNA in each dose group treated with GLS increased with the dose of GLS(P<0.05),while the expression levels of VEGF mRNA and Bad mRNA gradually decreased.Conclusion:GLS can protect acute liver injury induced by cadmium in rats,and the underlying protective mechanism may be:GLS induces MT expression in rat liver,and forms a Cd-MT stable complex by MT combined with free Cd to reduce the toxic effect of free cadmium on the liver.Vascular endothelial cells specifically bind to MT,improve the expression of VEGF,decrease the expression and dephosphorylation of Bad,thereby reducing apoptosis and toxicity to the liver in the end.