Effect of Huatan Qushi Huoxue prescription on the ADPN/AMPK/ACC signaling pathway in rats with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis

Objective To investigate the effect of Huatan Qushi Huoxue prescription on the adiponectin (ADPN) /adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) /acetyl-Co A carboxylase (ACC) signaling pathway in rats with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) .Methods A total of 72 male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into blank group, model group, control group, and high-, middle-, and low-dose Huatan Qushi Huoxue prescription groups.All rats except those in the blank group were given high-fat diet combined with intraperitoneal injection of tetracycline to establish a rat model of NASH.At week 2 after model establishment, the Huatan Qushi Huoxue prescription groups were treated with high-, middle-, and low-dose Huatan Qushi Huoxue prescription, and polyene phosphatidylcholine (Yishanfu) capsules were given as control.At the end of the experiment, the content of free fatty acid (FFA) in liver homogenate was measured, and ELISA and RT-q PCR were used to measure the protein and mRNA expression of ADPN, adiponectin receptor-2 (AdipoR2) , AMPK, ACC, and carnitine palmitoyltransferase-1 (CPT-1) in liver tissue.An analysis of variance was used for comparison of data between multiple groups;the least significant difference t-test was used for comparison of data with homogeneity of variance between two groups, and the Dunnett's T3 method was used for comparison of data with heterogeneity of variance.Results Compared with the control group, the high-dose group had significant reductions in FFA level in liver homogenate (229.07±46.62 μmol/gprot vs 382.75 ±30.93 μmol/gprot, P<0.01) and mRNA and protein expression of ACC in liver tissue (mRNA:1.66±0.04 vs 2.40±0.37, P<0.01;protein:512.20±60.70 pg/g vs 756.72±61.21 pg/g, P<0.01) , as well as significant increases in the mRNA and protein expression of ADPN (mRNA:1.53±0.31 vs 0.75±0.11, P<0.01;protein:22.23±2.75 μg/g vs 14.01±2.17 μg/g, P<0.01) , AdipoR2 (mRNA:1.38±0.33 vs 0.61±0.09, P<0.01;protein:128.41±10.46 ng/g vs 94.62±6.88 ng/g, P<0.01) , AMPK (mRNA:1.43±0.39 vs 0.78±0.04, P<0.01;protein:1353.79±59.52 μg/g vs 1107.19±56.78 μg/g, P<0.01) , and CPT-1 (mRNA:1.39±0.31 vs 0.52±0.04, P<0.01;protein:175.54±9.91 U/g vs 128.74±12.74 U/g, P<0.01) .Conclusion Huatan Qushi Huoxue prescription can effectively activate the ADPN/AMPK/ACC signaling pathway, which may affect the β oxidation and synthesis of fatty acids and reduce fat deposition in hepatocytes.