Abstract

The effect of codium fragile (Chlorophyta) extract on the hepatic dysfunction and hyperlipidemia in rats

Author(s): Kap Joo Park, Eun Kyoung Hwang, Chan Sun Park, Myung Hwan Cho

To examine the effect of Codiumfragile on blood cholesterol and lipid metabolism, hyperlipidemia was induced in the experimental animals rats by administering hypercholesterolemia diet, and while administering Codium fragile powder for 5 weeks, blood biochemical change such as blood cholesterol, AST andALT enzyme activity, etc. was examined, and histological change of liver cells were examined using an electron microscope. Codium fragile treatment resulted in a significant reduction in the level of total cholesterol, blood triglyceride and LDL-cholesterol compared to the control rats. In contrast, expression levels of HDL-cholesterol were increased. The AST value of the Codium fragile administration group was significantly reduced and the blood ALT value of the Codium fragile group showed a significant decrease in comparison with the negative control group. The histological change of liver cells of experimental animalswas examined using an electron microscope, and it was found that in the negative control group, degeneration of hepatic tissues due to the consumption of high lipid diet for a long time was shown noticeably, and the accumulation of lipid droplets in the cytoplasm could be observed. On the other hand, in the Codium fragile administration group, a substantial reduction of the accumulation of lipid droplets in the cytoplasm was shown, and in addition, it could be confirmed that the degeneration of hepatic tissues was recovered almost to the normal control group. Summarizing the above results, it showed the possibility of Codium fragile to be a candidate material to improve the abnormality of lipidmetabolismcaused by liver cell damages and hyperlipidemia.