Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Aug 28;34(3):198-204.
doi: 10.5152/turkjsurg.2018.3952.

Protective effects of St. John's wort in the hepatic ischemia/reperfusion injury in rats

Süleyman Atalay  1 , Belkıs Soylu  2 , Aslı Aykaç  3 , Ayliz Velioğlu Öğünç  4 , Şule Çetinel  5 , Naziye Özkan  5 , Can Erzik  6 , Ahmet Özer Şehirli  7
Affiliations

Protective effects of St. John's wort in the hepatic ischemia/reperfusion injury in rats

Süleyman Atalay et al. Turk J Surg. .

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate possible protective effects of St. John's wort in the hepatic ischemia/reperfusion injury.

Material and methods: The hepatic artery, portal vein, and bile duct were all clamped for 45 minutes to induce ischemia in rats, and after that reperfusion for 1 hour. SJW was administrated orally, once a day for 3 days before ischemia/reperfusion. The aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, tumor necrosis factor, and interleukin levels were measured in the serum samples. Luminol chemiluminescence, lucigenin luminol chemiluminescence levels; myeloperoxidase. The sodium-potassium ATPase (Na+/K+ ATPase) activity was determined in the liver tissue, and caspase-3 and caspase-9 activity with the bcl-2/bax ratio were measured by the western blot analysis.

Results: The St. John's wort administration recovered the aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, tumor necrosis factor, and IL-1β levels serum parameters meaningfully, while ischemia/reperfusion caused an increase in luminol chemiluminescence, lucigenin luminol chemiluminescence, myeloperoxidase, caspase-3, and caspase-9 activity and led to a decrease in the B-cell lymphoma-2/bcl-2-associated X protein (bcl-2/bax) ratio and the Na+/K+ ATPase activity.

Conclusion: The obtained results indicate protective effects of St. John's wort on the ischemia/reperfusion injury through various mechanisms, and we are able to suggest that St. John's wort can clinically create a new therapeutic principle.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
a, b. In the rat hepatic ischemia/reperfusion model (HI), tissues from all groups luminol (a) and lucigenin values (b) SJW: Saint John’s wort *p<0.01, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001 Comparisons with respect to control groups, ++p<0.01, +++p<0.001 Comparisons according to the I/R group
Figure 2
Figure 2
a, b. In the rat hepatic ischemia/reperfusion model (HI), tissues from all groups myeloperoxidase (MPO) (a), Na+-K+ATPase values (b) SJW: Saint John’s wort **p<0.01, ***p<0.001 Comparisons with respect to control groups, +p<0.05 Comparisons according to the HI group
Figure 3
Figure 3
In the rat hepatic ischemia/reperfusion model, Bcl-2/Bax ratio and caspase-3 and caspase-9 activities of all groups. SJW: Saint John’s wort
Figure 4
Figure 4
a–d. (a) Control group; central vein with smooth contours (*) and sinusoids (▶) (a), SJW group, central vein with smooth contours (*) and sinusoids (▶) (b), HI group, dilatation of sinusoids, hepatocellular degeneration (arrows) and widespread congestion in the central vein (*) (c), HI-SJW group, reduced dilatation in sinusoids (arrows) and reduced congestion in the central vein (*) (d)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Şehirli Ö, Özel Y, Dulundu E, Topaloğlu Ü, Ercan F, Şener G. Grape seed extract treatment reduces hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats. Phytother Res. 2008;22:43–48. doi: 10.1002/ptr.2256. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Zhai Y, Petrowsky H, Hong JC, Busuttil RW, Kupiec-Weglinski JW. Ischemia-reperfusion injury in liver transplantation-from bench to bedside. Nat rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2013;10:79–89. doi: 10.1038/nrgastro.2012.225. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Baykara B, Tekmen I. Karaciğer iskemi reperfüzyon hasarı. DEÜ Tıp Fakültesi Dergisi. 2005;5:185–194.
    1. Elias-Miro M, Jimenez-Castro MB, Peralta C. Ischemia-reperfusion injury associated with liver transplantation in 2011: Past and future. In: Abdeldayem Hesham., editor. Basic Issues. 2012. pp. 21–56.
    1. Kakoki M, Pochynyuk OM, Hathaway CM, Tomita H, Hagaman JR, Kim HS, et al. Primary aldosteronism and impaired natriuresis in mice underexpressing TGFβ1. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013;110:5600–5605. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1302641110. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources