Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 14, 2015; 21(14): 4195-4209
Published online Apr 14, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i14.4195
Hydrogen-rich water protects against acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity in mice
Jing-Yao Zhang, Si-Dong Song, Qing Pang, Rui-Yao Zhang, Yong Wan, Da-Wei Yuan, Qi-Fei Wu, Chang Liu
Jing-Yao Zhang, Si-Dong Song, Qing Pang, Rui-Yao Zhang, Yong Wan, Chang Liu, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710061, Shaanxi Province, China
Da-Wei Yuan, Department of Surgical Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710061, Shaanxi Province, China
Qi-Fei Wu, Department of Thoracic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710061, Shaanxi Province, China
Author contributions: Zhang JY and Song SD participated in the research design and in the writing of the paper, they contributed equally to the work; Pang Q participated in the research design; Zhang RY participated in the writing of the paper and in the literature searches; Wan Y participated in the research design and paper revisions; Yuan DW participated in the literature searches; Wu QF participated in the research design; Liu C provided substantial advice in designing the study and assisting in the division of labor.
Ethics approval: The study was reviewed and approved by The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University College of Medicine Institutional Review Board.
Institutional animal care and use committee: All procedures involving animals were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University College (IACUC protocol number: XITULAC2014-207).
Conflict-of-interest: Authors declare no competing financial interests.
Data sharing: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at liuchangdoctor@163.com. Participants gave informed consent for data sharing.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Chang Liu, MD, PhD, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, No. 277 Yanta West Road, Xi’an 710061, Shaanxi Province, China. liuchangdoctor@163.com
Telephone: +86-29-82653900 Fax: +86-29-82654642
Received: October 17, 2014
Peer-review started: October 18, 2014
First decision: December 2, 2014
Revised: December 17, 2014
Accepted: February 12, 2015
Article in press: February 13, 2015
Published online: April 14, 2015
Processing time: 179 Days and 23.5 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Acetaminophen (APAP)-induced liver injury is a devastating and fatal disease. Hydrogen is a newly-developed antioxidant that has an obvious effect of selectively reducing the strongest oxidants, such as hydroxyl radicals and peroxynitrite. We launched a research study to evaluate the protective role of hydrogen-rich water on APAP-induced hepatotoxicity in mice. We found that hydrogen-rich water treatment was effective in counteracting APAP-induced hepatic damage, oxidative stress and cellular necrosis. It could also promote hepatocyte proliferation and inhibit the expression of connexin 32, cytochrome P4502E and JNK phosphorylation after APAP administration. These results provide a potential therapy for APAP-induced liver injury.