Abstract
During the recent years, much great deal of research has been conducted on potential use of certain herbs and nutraceuticals to manage nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), specifically with those strong biological activities and antioxidant ability. In our research, the goal is to investigation the protective efficacy of the ethanol extract of Crataegus orientalis fruits (COE) aganist lipid accumulation in oleic acid (OA)-induced hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HepG2) at the molecular level. Firstly, antioxidant activity and lipoxygenase activity of the C. orientalis were determined in vitro. For induction of lipid accumulation in HepG2, we established an in vitro model using 1 mM OA. The C. orientalis was evaluated for their ability to prevent from lipid accumulation and effects on sterol regulatory element binding protein-1c (SREBP-1c), acetyl CoA carboxylase (ACC1) and fatty acid synthase (FAS) mRNA levels involved in lipid metabolism. The C. orientalis exhibited moderate antioxidant activity against ABTS and DPPH radicals and a significant anti-inflammatory effect against the 5-lipoxygenase enzyme. The results demonstrated that the COE (100 µg/ml) inhibited lipid accumulation (p < 0.01) and was effective in reducing triglyceride (TG) concentration (p < 0.001) and production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in HepG2 cells (p < 0.05). C. orientalis suppressed mRNA expression of lipid metabolism enzymes (ACC1, FAS) and transcription factor SREBP-1c (p < 0.001, p < 0.001 and p < 0.01, respectively). Our findings recommend that C. orientalis fruits are potentially protective against lipid accumulation in hepatocytes and may have beneficial effects in the treatment of the NAFLD.
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The author would like to thank Assist. Prof. İsmail Şenkardeş (Department of Pharmaceutical Botany, Faculty of Pharmacy, Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey) for his help in identification of the plant material. All authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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This research was supported by Marmara University Scientific Research Projects Commission (Project No: SAG-C-YLP- 110718-0432). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
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Kader Fatma Algül: Investigation, Conceptualization, Designing the Experiments, Analyzing the Data, Writing—Original Draft. Azize Şener: Supervision, Project administration, Analyzing the Data, Writing—Review, Editing. Ali Şen: Project administration Investigation. Turgut Şekerler: Investigation, Writing. Gizem Gülmez; Investigation Writing All authors contributed to editing and revising the manuscript. All authors read and approved this version for submission.
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Kader Fatma Algül has no conflict of interest. Turgut Şekerler has no conflict of interest. Ali Şen has no conflict of interest. Gizem Gülmez has no conflict of interest. Azize Şener has no conflict of interest.
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Algül, K.F., Şekerler, T., Şen, A. et al. Effects of Crataegus orientalis fruit extract on lipid accumulation in oleic acid-induced HepG2 cells. ADV TRADIT MED (ADTM) (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13596-024-00750-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13596-024-00750-5