Tomatoes Protect the Liver Against Non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis in Vivo

By Kyle J. Norton

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a type of inflammatory non-alcoholic fatty liver disease caused by excessive fat accumulated in the liver.

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is asymptomatic until the condition is developed into cirrhosis, the condition that causes advanced liver scars and reduced the performance of the liver.

In other words, if more than 5% – 10% percent of your liver’s weight is fat, you have a fatty liver (steatosis).

According to the statistics, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the most common causes of liver disease affecting 100 million people in the US. Out of that number, approximately 20% of people have NASH.

Medical conditions such as obesity, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes are some of the metabolic risk factors that have been found to induce the development of NASH.

As of today, there is no effective treatment of NASH. Depending on the condition people with overweight or obese are recommended to lose weight. The aim of medical treatment is to reduce the symptoms and delay the progression of the condition and improve the quality of life.

Out of many prevalent factors that cause the onset of NASH, some researchers suggested that the promotion of high-fat diet over the past few decades induced high percentage of the overweight and obese population may be the major culprit associated with the rise of NASH.

Dr. Jensen VS, the lead scientist wrote, "Hepatic dysfunction and inflammation was confirmed in HFD-fed rats by elevated levels of hepatic MCP-1 (p < 0.0001), TNF-alpha (p < 0.001) and plasma β-hydroxybutyrate (p < 0.0001), and in NASH-fed rats by elevated levels of hepatic MCP-1 (p < 0.01), increased hepatic macrophage infiltration (p < 0.001), and higher plasma levels of alanine aminotransferase (p < 0.0001) aspartate aminotransferase (p < 0.05), haptoglobin (p < 0.001) and TIMP-1 (p < 0.01) compared to Control".

And, " dietary fat and cholesterol are the primary drivers of NAFLD development and progression in rats, while fructose mostly exerts its effect on the circulating lipid pool".

Tomato is red, edible fruit, genus Solanum, belonging to family Solanaceae, native to South America. Because of its health benefits, the tomato is grown worldwide for the commercial purpose
and often in the greenhouse.

With an aim to discover a potential and natural compound for the treatment of liver cancer, researchers in the cancer tram at the First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University examined the hepatoprotective effect of lycopene (Ly) on the non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in an animal model.

65 rats selected to the study were randomly divided into the normal group, model group, and lycopene (Ly) treatment groups, with model rats induced NAFLD by feeding a high-fat diet for 14 wks.

Pretreatment of lycopene at the dose of 20 mg/kg showed a significant decrease in the levels of serum AST (2.07-fold), ALT (2.95-fold), and the blood lipid TG (2.34-fold) and TC (1.66-fold) compared to the model group.

Furthermore, pretreatment with 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg of Ly significantly raised the levels of antioxidant enzyme SOD in a dose-dependent manner compared to the model group. 

Additional differentiation of the lycopene liver protective property, researchers found that Ly not only significantly decreased levels of lipid products LDL-C and improved HDL-C level but also significantly decreased the content of liver free fatty acid (FFA), also compared to the model group.

Moreover, in the doses of pretreatment with 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg of Ly also significantly reduced MDA amount, a marker of liver oxidative stress by 30.87, 45.51 and 54.49% in the liver homogenates, respectively

Levels of CYP2E1 expression associated with the metabolism of xenobiotics in the liver, proinflammatory cytokines, infiltration of liver fats and reversed histopathological changes in the model group also were reduced by the injection of Ly.

Based on the results, researchers said, "Ly has a protective effect on NAFLD, down-regulates expression of TNF-α, and that CYP2E1 may be one of the action mechanisms for Ly".

Taken altogether, tomatoes processed abundantly bioactive compound Ly may be considered supplements for the prevention and treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis through its liver protective, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties, pending to the confirmation of the larger sample size and multicenter human study.

Intake of lycopene in the form of supplement should be taken with extreme care to prevent overdose acute liver toxicity.

Natural Medicine for Fatty Liver And Obesity Reversal - The Revolutionary Findings To Achieve Optimal Health And Lose Weight

How To Get Rid Of Eye Floaters 
Contrary To Professionals Prediction, Floaters Can Be Cured Naturally 

Ovarian Cysts And PCOS Elimination
Holistic System In Existence That Will Show You How To
Permanently Eliminate All Types of Ovarian Cysts Within 2 Months

Back to Kyle J. Norton Homepage http://kylejnorton.blogspot.ca


Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
non-alcoholic steatohepatitis
(1) Hepatoprotective and antioxidant effects of lycopene on non-alcoholic fatty liverdisease in rat by Jiang W1, Guo MH1, Hai X. (PubMed)
(2) Tobacco carcinogen induces both lung cancer and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and hepatocellular carcinomas in ferrets which can be attenuated by lycopene supplementation by Aizawa K1,2, Liu C1, Tang S1, Veeramachaneni S1, Hu KQ1, Smith DE3, Wang XD. (PubMed)
(3) Dietary fat stimulates development of NAFLD more potently than dietary fructose in Sprague-Dawley rats by Jensen VS1,2, Hvid H2, Damgaard J2, Nygaard H2, Ingvorsen C3, Wulff EM4, Lykkesfeldt J1, Fledelius C. (PubMed)