Therapeutic effect of Chaishao Liujunzi Decoction on mice with alcoholic liver damage and its mechanism

Objective To investigate the therapeutic effect of Chaishao Liujunzi Decoction (CLD) on alcoholic liver da-mage (ALD) and its mechanism. Methods A total of 50 male C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into control group (group A), model group (group B), low-dose CLD group (group C), middle-dose CLD group (group D), and high-dose CLD group (group E). The mice in groups B, C, D, and E were given ethanol solution (6 g/kg) by gavage at a volume fraction of 0.56 every day, and at the same time, the mice in groups C, D, and E were given CLD by gavage at a dose of 2.5, 5, and 10 g/kg, respectively, every day; the mice in group A were given an equal volume of normal saline by gavage, once a day for 15 d. Body weight was measured every 5 d. After the experiment, fresh feces was collected from each group of mice, plate culture after gradient dilution was performed to analyze the composition of intestinal flora in feces; after the mice were anesthetized, blood samples were collected from the eyes to measure the serum levels of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (γ-GT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), total bilirubin (TBIL), triglyceride (TG), and total cholesterol (TC); after the mice were sacrificed, the liver was collected to calculate the liver index; HE staining was performed for liver tissue sections to observe pathological changes. Results On day 15, compared with group B, groups C and E had a significant increase in body weight (q=4.217-7.573,P<0.05), and group E had a significant reduction in liver index (q=4.997,P<0.05). Compared with group B, groups C, D, and E had significant reductions in the serum levels of ALT, AST, γ-GT, ALP, TBIL, and TG in a dose-dependent manner (q=4.705-19.790,P<0.05), while there was no significant difference in the serum level of TC (P>0.05). Liver histopathological analysis showed that compared with group B, groups C, D, and E had alleviation of liver pathological injury. The analysis of intestinal flora showed that ...