Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Aug 21, 2017; 23(31): 5722-5731
Published online Aug 21, 2017. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i31.5722
Protective effects of Foeniculum vulgare root bark extract against carbon tetrachloride-induced hepatic fibrosis in mice
Cai Zhang, Xing Tian, Ke Zhang, Guo-Yu Li, Hang-Yu Wang, Jin-Hui Wang
Cai Zhang, Xing Tian, Ke Zhang, Guo-Yu Li, Hang-Yu Wang, Jin-Hui Wang, School of Pharmacy, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832002, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China
Author contributions: Zhang C performed the majority of experiments; Tian X made contributions to data interpretation and wrote the manuscript; Zhang K participated in the establishment of the animal model; Li GY and Wang HY performed data analysis; Wang JH designed the study and revised the manuscript.
Supported by National Key Technology R&D Program, No. 2012BAI30B02.
Institutional review board statement: All experiments were reviewed and approved by the Institute Ethnics Committee of Shihezi University and the methods were carried out in accordance with the Animal Management Rules of the Chinese Ministry of Health.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: The protocol on animal use was approved by the Institute Ethnics Committee of Shihezi University.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article are reported.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
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: Xing Tian, PhD, School of Pharmacy, Shihezi University, North Road 4, Shihezi 832002, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. tianxing2017@shzu.edu.cn
Telephone: +86-993-2310715
Received: February 13, 2017
Peer-review started: February 14, 2017
First decision: April 7, 2017
Revised: May 14, 2017
Accepted: June 9, 2017
Article in press: June 12, 2017
Published online: August 21, 2017
Processing time: 186 Days and 14.3 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Hepatic fibrosis is a wound-healing pathological process resulting from chronic hepatic injuries. In the present study, hepatoprotective effects of Foeniculum vulgare root bark (FVRB), a traditional Uyghur medicine, against carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced hepatic fibrosis in mice were investigated. FVRB reduced serum levels of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, triglyceride, hexadecenoic acid and laminin. Furthermore, FVRB inhibited CCl4-induced TGF-β1, MMP-9, TIMP-1 expression and histopathological changes. Our study indicated that the protective effects of FVRB are through inhibiting lipid peroxidation and collagen formation in liver tissue of liver fibrosis mice.