2000 Volume 46 Issue 2 Pages 126-131
Human-placenta extract (PLx) possesses various physiologically important activities, such as antioxidant activity and anti-inflammatory activity. Our previous study elucidated that uracil, tyrosine, and phenylalanine function as the main antioxidative substances in PLx. In order to confirm whether these compounds have similar function as PLx, we examined the effects of the administration on ethanol-induced liver injury in mice. As a result, PLx suppressed ethanol-induced decrease in hepatic glutathione level, increase in thiobarbituric acid reaction substance (TBARS), increase in the activities of glutamate pyruvate transaminase, glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase, and superoxide dismutase, and decrease in the activity of catalase. A mixture of uracil, tyrosine, and phenylalanine showed similar antioxidant activity to PLx, except for failure to suppress the increase in TBARS. Although these results suggest that PLx has some other unknown components to alleviate acute alcoholic liver injury, the mixture of uracil, tyrosine, and phenylalanine appeared to have almost the same ability to suppress acute ethanol-induced liver injury in mice as that of PLx.
