Amelioration of ethanol-induced liver injury in rats by nanogold flakes

The purpose of this study was to investigate the protective effects of nanogold flakes against alcoholic liver disease. Six-week-old male Wistar rats were divided into 6 groups: C (control liquid diet), CLF (control liquid diet with gold flakes at 1.03mg/kg body weight [BW]/day), CHF (control liquid diet with gold flakes at 5.15mg/kg BW/day), E (ethanol liquid diet), ELF (ethanol liquid diet with gold flakes at 1.03mg/kg BW/day), and EHF (ethanol liquid diet with gold flakes at 5.15mg/kg BW/day). The liquid diets were prepared daily. Gold flakes were added to the ethanol 1h before preparing the ethanol liquid diets, as an aging process. After 10 weeks, rats in group E showed significantly higher plasma aspartate transaminase (AST) and alanine transaminase (ALT) activities than those in group C. A significantly increased concentration of hepatic triglyceride (TG) was found in group E. Furthermore, higher hepatic glutathione reductase (GRD), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase (CAT) activities together with higher tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α concentration and higher hepatic cytochrome (CYP2E1) protein expression were also observed in group E. In contrast, the hepatic TG concentration in group EHF was significantly lower than that of group E. In addition, hepatic glutathione peroxidase (GPX), SOD, and CAT activities together with TNF-α concentration and hepatic CYP2E1 protein expression in group EHF were significantly lower than those in group E. We concluded that nanogold flakes might ameliorate alcohol-induced liver injury by maintaining the hepatic antioxidative status. In addition, nanogold flakes may reduce fat accumulation caused by chronic ethanol feeding via decreasing hepatic TNF-α.