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Berberine attenuates oxidative stress and hepatocytes apoptosis via protecting mitochondria in blunt snout bream Megalobrama amblycephala fed high-fat diets

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Abstract

High-fat diets may have favorable effects on growth and cost, but high-fat diets often induce excessive fat deposition, resulting in liver damage. This study aimed to identify the hepatoprotective of a Chinese herb (berberine) for blunt snout bream (Megalobrama amblycephala). Fish were fed with a normal diet (LFD, 5 % fat), high-fat diet (HFD, 15 % fat) or berberine-supplemented diets (BSD, 15 % fat with berberine 50 or 100 mg/kg level) for 8 weeks. After the feeding, histology, oxidative status and mitochondrial function of liver were assessed. The results showed that HFD caused fat accumulation, oxidative stress and apoptosis in hepatocytes of fish. Hepatocytes in HFD group appeared to be hypertrophied, with larger liver cells diameter than these of LFD group. Berberine-supplemented diets could attenuate oxidative stress and hepatocytes apoptosis. HFD induced the decreasing mitochondrial complexes activities and bulk density and surface area density. Berberine improved function of mitochondrial respiratory chain via increasing the complex activities. Moreover, the histological results showed that berberine has the potential to repair mitochondrial ultrastructural damage and elevate the density in cells. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that berberine has attenuated liver damage induced by the high fat mainly via the protection for mitochondria.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (31172418, 31202005).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fisheries College, Jimei University, Xiamen, 361021, China

    Kang-Le Lu

  2. College of Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China

    Kang-Le Lu, Li-Na Wang, Ding-Dong Zhang & Wen-Bin Liu

  3. School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Wei-Na Xu

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  1. Kang-Le Lu
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  2. Li-Na Wang
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  3. Ding-Dong Zhang
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Correspondence to Wen-Bin Liu or Wei-Na Xu.

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Lu, KL., Wang, LN., Zhang, DD. et al. Berberine attenuates oxidative stress and hepatocytes apoptosis via protecting mitochondria in blunt snout bream Megalobrama amblycephala fed high-fat diets. Fish Physiol Biochem 43, 65–76 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10695-016-0268-5

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