Agaricus Blazei Murill Extract Abrogates Ccl4-Induced Liver Injury in Rats

Agaricus blazei Murill ABM is enriched with polysaccharides, lipids, vitamins, fibers and minerals. Many studies have shown that ABM possesses immune-enhancing and anti-tumor effects. However, little is known about its protective effects on liver function. We employed carbon tetrachloride CCl4 to induce hepatic fibrosis in a rat model to examine the protective effects of ABM on the liver in this study. The experiments included non- treatment control, CCl4-only control, and treatment with 200 mg and 2,000 mg of ABM extracts per kilogram rat weight. All groups other than the non- treatment control were treated with intraperitoneal injections of CCl4 twice a week. Experimental and control rats were tube-fed with experimental ABM extracts or double- distilled water, respectively, on the remaining four days each week. The whole experimental protocol lasted 8 weeks; blood and liver samples were collected for biochemical and tissue histochemical analysis. Plasma alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase, and the activities of the anti-oxidative enzymes glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase and catalase in the liver were measured. We found that high-dose ABM treatment reduced hepatic necrosis and fibrosis caused by CCl4 in comparison with the CCl4 control group. ALT and AST activities in the sera collected from ABM-treated rats were lower than those in the CCl4 control rats. These results suggested that ABM extract was capable of either enhancing liver recovering from CCl 4 damage or attenuating CCl4 toxicity. Results of anti-oxidative enzyme activity analysis showed no apparent differences among ABM-treated groups and CCl4 control groups , indicating that removal of free radicals does not explain the protective/recovery effects observed in this study