Hypolipidemic effect of gypenosides in experimentally induced hypercholesterolemic rats

BACKGROUND: To investigate the anti-hyperlipidemic effect of gynosaponins (GPs) in hyperlipidemic rats induced by high lipid diet. METHODS: Animal model of hyperlipidemia was established by high-fat and high-cholesterol diet. Rats were randomly divided into 6 groups, except the normal and model groups, rats in GPs groups were daily administered intragastrically with GPs (50, 100, and 200 mg/kg), and rats in simvastatin group were daily administered intragastrically with simvastatin (10 mg/kg). It was measured that the contents of glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), malondialdehyde (MDA), total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) in the serum, TG and TC in the liver during this experiment, respectively. The left lobe of liver was observed by histopathological staining, and the immunohistochemical staining was used to observe the effects on the effect of GPs on liver functions. RESULTS: Compared with the model group, GPs groups could remarkably decrease the content of lipids, GSH-Px, SOD, CAT and MDA in the serum and TC and TG in the liver of the hyperlipidemic rats. The pathomorphological results of hepatic tissue showed that fatty degeneration and inflammatory reaction of GPs groups were lightened compared with the model group. CONCLUSIONS: The results show that GPs has good effects on the treatment of hyperlipidemia induced by high lipid diet in rats. The possible anti-hyperlipidemia mechanism maybe those GPs can regulate the disorder of lipid metabolism as well as ameliorate hepatic function.