Antioxidative and hepatoprotective effect of CGX, an herbal medicine, against toxic acute injury in mice

CGX, a modified traditional Chinese herbal drug whose name means “liver cleaning,” is used to treat various liver disorders. This study investigated the protective effects of CGX and its mechanisms. After pretreating ICR mice twice daily with CGX (po, 50 or 100 mg/kg) or distilled water for three consecutive days, acute liver injury was induced by a single injection of CCl4 (ip, 10 mL/kg of 0.2% in olive oil) (n = 8 per group). Pretreatment with CGX significantly attenuated the elevation in biochemical parameters, such as alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in serum, and the malondialdehyde concentrations in liver tissue. Pretreatment with CGX significantly restored the reduction of catalase activity and glutathione (GSH) content, but not superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, and it inhibited the CCl4-induced high expression of iNOS and TNF-α in hepatic tissue. This study showed that CGX has hepatoprotective effects against free radical-induced acute injury via primarily antioxidative properties.