Effect of a Concentrate of Sake and Ethyl α-D-glucoside on Chronic Alcohol-induced Liver Injury in Mice

Abstract

We investigated the hepatoprotective effects of a concentrate of sake (CS) and a sake-specific sugar, ethyl α-D-glucoside (α-EG), against chronic alcohol-induced liver injury by measuring the plasma pyruvate transaminase (GPT) activity and the plasma and liver tryacylglycerol (TG) levels in mice. Male C 57/BL 6 mice were orally administered with CS (3 ml/kg) orα-EG (200 mg/kg) 5 times per week while on a Lieber-DeCarli diet with or without ethanol for 4 weeks. In the mice ingesting CS orα-EG, the alcohol-induced increase in plasma GPT activity and increases in plasma and liver TG levels were suppressed, suggesting that CS and α-EG suppress chronic alcohol-induced liver injury in mice. We showed that sake has components attenuating alcoholic liver injury.