Phytochemical Tocopherols Inhibits Liver fibrosis Caused by Toxicity

The liver is the largest internal organ found in the human which plays an essential role in filtering the blood from the digestive system before passing them to other parts of the body.

The liver also produces cholesterol, a waxy substance which aids digestion, builds cell membranes, and produces vitamin D and steroid hormones.

Liver disease is a class of medical conditions characterized by the reduction partly or completely the function of the liver, including liver failure.

Hepatic fibrosis is a condition characterized by overly exuberant wound healing causing excessive connective tissue builds up in the liver. In other words, hepatic fibrosis is a portion of the liver which was affected by scars formation.

Since liver fibrosis is a very slowly progressive disease, people who carry the disease may not experience any symptoms until the advanced stage.

The exact causes of liver fibrosis are unknown. However, certain risk factors such as repeated liver injury caused by a virus infection, and a blockage in the bile ducts are found to elevate on the onset of liver fibrosis. However, not all people with the virus will develop liver fibrosis.

Long-term untreated liver fibrosis can lead to cirrhosis, a condition of the severe scarring of the liver, and life-threatening liver disease.

The most common scale to grade the stage of liver fibrosis is the METAVIR scoring system. By examing the grade and stage of liver fibrosis of patients, their doctors can now determine the degree of severity to which patients' liver is affected.

According to a statistic from John Hopkins Medicine(2),
* Cirrhosis and other chronic liver diseases are common disease-related causes of death in the U.S. Approximately 31,000 people in the U.S. die each year from cirrhosis.

* Approximately 3.5 to 4.6 million people in the U.S. are chronically infected with the hepatitis C virus. About 2,000 people die of hepatitis C annually in the U.S.

And,

* Hepatitis B kills approximately 2,000 people in the U.S. annually, and 85,000 to 2.2 million people in the U.S. are infected with the virus.

Tocopherols are phytochemicals of which many have vitamin E activity, belonging to the group of Lipids, found abundantly in butter, egg yolk, milk fat, some vegetable, and seed or nut oils, etc.


On finding a potential phytochemical for the treatment of liver diseases, researchers examined the efficacy of combined administration of alpha-tocopherol (AT) and ascorbic acid (AA) in ethanol-induced hepatotoxicity.

Rats selected for the study were grouped into I-control rats, II-ethanol, III-alpha-tocopherol, IV-ethanol+alpha-tocopherol, V-AA, VI-ethanol+ascorbic acid, VII-alpha-tocopherol+ascorbic acid, VIII-ethanol+alpha-tocopherol+ascorbic acid for 90 days.

According to the tested analysis, all parameters associated with toxication which were elevated in the ethanol group were significantly reduced by the administered AT and AA in combination.

Furthermore, the levels of antioxidant enzymes produced by the rats which were reduced by ethanol administration were enhanced on combined administration of AT and AA.

Hepatic fibrosis induced by the ethanol toxicity was over 20% lower in the AT and AA co-administered group compared with AT and AA alone treated groups.

Based on the findings, researchers said, "Combined administration of fat-soluble AT and water-soluble AA was beneficial against ethanol-induced hepatotoxicity. This may be due to their different subcellular localizations".

Taken altogether, tocopherols may be considered a functional food for the prevention and treatment of liver fibrosis caused by toxicity, pending to the confirmation of the larger sample size and multicenter human study.

Intake of tocopherols in the form of supplements 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
(1) Additive effect of alpha-tocopherol and ascorbic acid in combating ethanol-induced hepatic fibrosis by Prathibha P1, Rejitha S, Harikrishnan R, Das SS, Abhilash PA, Indira M. (PubMed)