The Effect of Gomisin A on Immunologic Liver Injury in Mice

Abstract

The hepatoprotective effect of Gomisin A (TJN-101), which is a lignan compound isolated from Schizandra fruits, was studied on three immunologic liver injury models in mice. The first liver injury model was produced by the injection of anti-basic liver protein (BLP) antibody into DBA/2 mice which had been previously immunized with rabbit IgG (RGG). Other models were effected by injection of anti-liver specific protein (LSP) antibody into DBA/2 mice or by the injection of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) into ddY mice pretreated with Corynebacterium parvum (C. parvum). TJN-101 inhibited the elevation of transaminase (GOT and GPT) activities and showed the tendency to inhibit the histopathological changes of the liver in all models. Moreover, TJN-101 inhibited deoxycholic acid-induced release of transaminase from cultured rat hepatocytes in vitro, but did not affect the formation of hemolytic plaque forming cells in immunized mice spleens and hemolytic activity of guinea pig complement in immunohemolysis reaction. These results, therefore, suggested that the hepatoprotective effect of TJN-101 could be related to the protecting effect of hepatocyte plasma membrane rather than the inhibiting effects of the antibody formation and complement activity.