Lycopene Processes a Strong Hepatoprotective Effect

By Kyle J. Norton

The liver is the largest internal organ and the first line of the bodily toxin defense by filtering the blood from the digestive tract, before passing them to the rest of the body.

The liver also produces cholesterol that plays a critical role in building a strong cell wall, producing steroid hormones and vitamin D and aiding the digestive function in food absorption and detoxifying chemicals and metabolizes drugs.

The hepatoprotective or liver protective effect is a process that maintains the healthy function of the liver against harmful toxins.

Toxic hepatitis that links to exposure to alcohol, chemicals, drugs or nutritional supplements that cause inflammation of the liver may be the most common liver toxicity in the US.

In the US, most cases of liver disease are a result of hepatitis viral infection and autoimmune diseases. Infectious viral hepatitis can produce toxins to protect them against the antioxidant enzymes produced by the host body and prevent the attack of the systematic immune response.

Symptoms of liver diseases include jaundice, abdominal pain, and swelling, swelling in the legs and ankles, itchy skin, dark urine, and pale stool color, and tendency to bruise easily.

According to the statistic from the Canadian liver foundation, approximately, one in ten Canadians, or more than three million people, have some form of liver disease.

Believe it or not, chronic hepatitis B and C, alcoholic liver disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and liver cancer account for the 95% of deaths in patients with liver disease.

Lycopene is a phytochemical 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.

On finding a potential compound for the prevention of liver injury, researchers examined the liver-protective effects of lycopene.

The study included BALB/c male mice divided into three equal groups: control, Concanavalin A (Con A), and Con A and lycopene with the control group mice received the only vehicle by intraperitoneal injection, the Con A group mice were given Con A, and group mice received Con A and lycopene.

Mice group treated by Con A showed a significant liver damaged observed by elevated levels of oxidative stress markers such as Con A administration increased histopathological damage, and the levels of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT).

Furthermore, Con A also stimulated the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-6, and immune response pro-inflammatory cytokine such as interferon (IFN)-γ and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α.

According to the analysis of the effect of lycopene on the Con A and lycopene group, all parameter associated with liver damage induced by Con A was significantly reduced by the administration of lycopene.

More importantly, lycopene not only inhibited the negative effect of Con A on the liver injury but also promoted the liver cell viability and cell growth.

In other words, lycopene processed anti-liver toxicity activity.

Based on the findings, researchers said, "The results of this study revealed that lycopene might be a useful hepatoprotective agent for reducing increased proinflammatory cytokine levels, and for increasing cell viability and cell growth".

Taken altogether, lycopene found in tomato may be considered supplements for the promotion of liver protection, 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) Hepatoprotective and antioxidant effects of lycopene in acute cholestasis by Tokaç M, Aydin S, Taner G, Özkardeş AB, Yavuz Taşlipinar M, Doğan M, Dündar HZ, Kiliç M, Başaran AA, Başaran AN. (PubMed)
(2) The hepatoprotective effect of lycopene on Con A-induced liver injury in mice by Shimizu Y, Mashima-Nemoto T, Hazawa M, Taira Y, Taira I, Ishida I, Isoda K. (PubMed)