Lycopene Ameliorates Liver Oxidative Stress Against Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

By Kyle J. Norton

The liver is the largest internal and detoxed organ which not only cleanses the blood from the intestinal tract before passing the blood to nourish other tissues and organs in the body but also secrets bile to aid digestion, build strong cell membranes, and produces vitamin D, and steroid hormones.

 Additionally, antioxidant enzymes produced the liver that inhibits free radicals oxidation also play an essential role to reduce risk of oxidative stress, the major causes of protein, lipid and cellular damage.

Liver disease is a class of health problems that cause the reduced function of the liver.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a chronic condition induced the onset of cirrhosis and liver cancer caused by fat accumulated in the liver over time, with no influence of excessive alcohol use. The disease can be classified into the types of non-inflammatory fatty liver (NAFL) and inflammatory nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).

Cirrhosis, is the late stage of liver scarring, as the liver tries to heal itself by halting inflammation, inducing symptoms of ascites, swell esophageal varices, hepatic encephalopathy, complications of liver cancer and liver failure.

According to the statistics provided by the American Liver Association, in the US about 100 million Americans are living with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease. 

Believe it or not, non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD), is also the most common form of liver disease in children and has more than doubled over the past 20 years.

The 2016 joint study led by the Autonomous University of Queretaro, showed that lycopene (LYC) may be effective on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) model induced with a high-fat diet (HFD).

Some researchers suggested that the increased incidence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in the Americans that cause the onset of obesity may be correlated with the promotion of a high-fat diet.

Dr. Jensen VS, the lead scientist said, "In humans and animal models, excessive intake of dietary fat, fructose, and cholesterol have been linked to the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)".

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".

Sprague-Dawley rats selected to the study induced a NAFLD model by either a normal diet (ND·4w) or an HFD (HFD·4w) during 4 weeks 

Then, rats from the ND·4w group continued during 4 weeks with the same diet (ND·8w), and rats from HFD were fed during 4 weeks with an ND (HFD·4w+ND·4w) or an ND plus LYC (HFD·4w+ND+LYC·4w).

Lycopene is a phytochemical found in tomato in the class of carotenoid, a natural pigment with no vitamin A activity found abundantly in tomatoes and other red fruits and vegetables, such as red carrots, watermelons, and papayas,

Tomatoes provide about 80% of the lycopene in the world diet. In plants, lycopene protects the host against excessive photodamage and perform various functions in photosynthesis.

Based on the tested analysis, ND plus LYC showed a significant effect NAFLD observed by the normalizing liver weight, hepatic TC, serum LDL.

Additionally, the ND plus LYC fed group demonstrated the reversal of some macroscopic and microscopic images of livers.

However, lycopene failed to inhibit the liver stress markers such as malondialdehyde level and serum aspartate aminotransferase activity during the period of study.

Dr. Piña-Zentella RM, the lead scientist after taking other factors into account wrote, "The results from this study suggest the potentially protective role of LYC against NAFLD".

Taken altogether, lycopene found in tomato may be considered supplements for the prevention and treatment of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, pending on 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.

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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
(1) Lycopene Improves Diet-Mediated Recuperation in Rat Model of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease by Piña-Zentella RM1, Rosado JL1, Gallegos-Corona MA2, Madrigal-Pérez LA3, García OP1, Ramos-Gomez M. (PubMed).