To investigate the effect of breviscapine against hepatic ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury and its underlying mechanisms in rats, 40 Sprague-Dawley male rats were randomly assorted into five groups (n=8 per group) as follows: Sham, I/R1 + normal saline (NS), I/R1 + breviscapine (Bre), I/R2 + NS and I/R2 + Bre, where label 1 and 2 denote ischemia time for 20 and 60 min, respectively. Bre or NS (10 mg/kg) was administered to the tail vein 1 h prior to surgery and immediately postoperatively. Reperfusion for 6 h, the blood and hepatic samples were collected immediately to evaluate hepatic function and histopathological changes, in addition with the expression levels of mitofusin 2 (Mfn2) and endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS)-associated proteins. The results demonstrated that breviscapine decreased the elevated serum level of ALT and AST and ameliorated histopathological changes compared with the NS groups (P<0.05). The expression of Mfn2 and Glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78) and Bcl2 protein were significantly increased in the Bre groups (P<0.05), accompanied by decreasing the expression of C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP) and cleaved caspase-3 (P<0.05) compared with the NS groups. These data revealed that breviscapine could ameliorate the hepatic I/R injury, possibly contribute to the up-regulation of Mfn2 expression to inhibit the ERS pathway, thus reducing the apoptosis of hepatocyte.

Wei Xu, Tian Yu, Yangpeng Ou, Yao Tian, Caiyun Chen, Jin Gong, Xing Lin. Mitofusin 2 protects effect of breviscapine against hepatic ischemia/reperfusion injury: Regulation of endoplasmic reticulum stress and apoptosis. Frontiers in Medical Science Research (2023) Vol. 5, Issue 11: 1-9. https://doi.org/10.25236/FMSR.2023.051101.

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