title: Structural shifts of gut flora in rat acute alcoholic liver injury and jianpi huoxue decoction's effect displayed by ERIC-PCR fingerprint.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the structural shifts of gut flora in rats with acute alcoholic liver injury (AALI), and the effect of jianpi huoxue decoction (JPHXD) on the gut flora.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-six Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly allocated to the control, AALI and JPHXD groups equally. The rats in the control group were given water and those in AALI and JPHXD groups were given ethanol by intragastric gavage for 5 days, while rats in the JPHXD group were administered JPHXD simultaneously. The blood and liver tissue were collected at the end of the experiment. The activities of serum alkaline aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), hepatic γ-glutamyltranspetidase (γ-GT) and hepatic triglyceride (TG) levels were determined. Plasma endotoxin level in the portal vein was measured. Pathological changes of liver tissues were determined by hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining and oil red O staining. The total DNA of gut flora were extracted from fecal samples by Bead-beating method and determined by ERIC-PCR fingerprint method. The similarity cluster analysis and principal component analysis were performed to analyze the ERIC-PCR fingerprint respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the AALI group, the ratio of liver/body weight, activities of ALT, AST and hepatic γ-GT, amount of hepatic TG were elevated significantly compared with those in the control group (all P<0.01). JPHXD decreased the ratio, activities of ALT, AST, γ-GT and TG significantly compared with those in the AALI group (P<0.05 or P<0.01). HE and oil red O staining showed that fat deposited markedly in liver tissue, while JPHXD alleviated pathological changes markedly. Plasma LPS level in rat portal vein in the AALI group increased significantly (P<0.01), but it was decreased significantly in the JPHXD group (P<0.01). The cluster analysis and principal component analysis of ERIC-PCR fingerprint showed that gut flora in the AALI group changed markedly, and JPHXD could recover gut flora to some extent.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The structure of gut flora shifted markedly during acute alcoholic liver injury, JPHXD had prevention effect through the modification of gut flora.
authors: Institute of Liver Diseases, Shuguang Hospital affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China. DrChengYang@126.com
authors: Yang
authors: Y
authors: Cheng
authors: Hai-hui
authors: HH
authors: Wang
authors: Yi-yang
authors: YY
authors: Hu
authors: Gao-feng
authors: GF
authors: Chen
authors: Jian
authors: J
authors: Ping
authors: Jing-hua
authors: JH
authors: Peng
authors: Qin
authors: Q
authors: Feng
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