Polyenylphosphatidylcholine prevents carbon tetrachloride-induced lipid peroxidation while it attenuates liver fibrosis

Background/Aims: Polyenylphosphatidylcholine protects against alcoholic cirrhosis in the baboon and carbon tetrachloride-induced cirrhosis in rats. this study addresses the possible mechanism of the protective effect of polyenylphosphatidylcholine. Methods: For 8 weeks, rats were injected with either carbon tetrachloride in peanut oil or peanut oil alone (control), and pair-fed nutritionally adequate liquid diets with equivalent amounts of linoleic acid either as polyenylphosphatidylcholine or as safflower oil. Other rats were injected for 9 weeks with heterologous albumin and fed the same liquid diets. Lipid peroxidation was measured by F-2-isoprostanes and 4-hydroxynonenal. Results: Carbon tetrachloride-induced lipid peroxidation was strikingly attenuated with polyenylphosphatidylcholine supplementation. Levels of hepatic F-2-isoprostanes and 4-hydroxynonenal paralleled liver fibrotic scores and collagen accumulation. Polyenylphosphatidylcholine also attenuated the fibrosis induced in rats with human albumin, but in this case levels of hepatic 4-hydroxynonenal did not change, nor were they significantly affected by polyenylphosphatidylcholine. Neither carbon tetrachloride injection nor polyenylphosphatidylcholine treatment changed the arachidonic acid content (a major precursor of F-2-isoprostanes and 4-hydroxynonenal) in liver phospholipids, and hepatic vitamin E was not significantly altered. Conclusions The hepatic protection of polyenylphosphatidylcholine against carbon tetrachloride appears to be due, at least in part, to an antioxidant effect, whereas the protection against heterologous albumin-induced fibrosis suggests that an additional mechanism, such as stimulation of collagenase activity, may also be responsible.