Effects of Chungganhaeju-tang on Gene Expression of Alcohol-metabolizing Enzymes and Alcohol-induced Apoptosis

청간해주탕(淸肝解酒湯)이 alcohol 대사관련 유전자 및 apoptosis에 미치는 영향

Objectives : This study was designed to investigate the effects of Chungganhaeju-tang on expression of alcohol metabolizing enzymes, cell viability and alcohol-induced apoptosis. Materials and Methods : For this study, the human hepatoma cell line HepG2 was used. HepG2 cells were treated with ethanol-or acetaldehyde, chungganhaeju-tang, anti-Fas neutralizing antibody and were investigated by using quantitative RT-PCR, MTT and Trypan blue exclusion assays. Results : The results are summarized as follows: 1. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis demonstrated that ethanol-or acetaldehyde-mediated increase of ALDH gene expression was not affected by Chungganhaeju-tang treatment. 2, Ethanol-or acetaldehyde-induced apoptosis was remarkably inhibited by Chungganhaeju-tang in a dose-dependent manner. 3, Ethanol-or acetaldehyde-induced apoptosis was significantly blocked by anti-FasL neutralizing antibody, suggesting apoptosis induced by alcohol might be mediated by FasL/Fas signaling pathway. Conclusions : Taken all together, these results indicate that the FasL/Fas signaling plays a critical role in alcohol-induced apoptosis and Chungganhaeju-tang increases viability of liver cells by suppression of the FasL/Fas-mediated apoptosis-signaling pathway.