Protective effects of selenium-glutathione-enriched probiotics on CCl 4 -induced liver fibrosis

Abstract Hepatic fibrosis is a common pathological basis of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinomas. So, prevention and treatment of liver fibrosis is one of the crucial therapeutic goals in hepatology. Organic selenium, glutathione or probiotics supplementation could ameliorate hepatic fibrosis, respectively. The purpose of this study is to develop a novel selenium-glutathione-enriched probiotics (SGP) and to investigate its protective effect on CCl 4 -induced liver fibrosis in rats. Yeast strains with the high-yield glutathione were isolated and identified by analysis of 26S ribosomal DNA sequences. The fermentation parameters of SGP were optimized through single-factor, Plackett–Burman (PB) design and response surface methodology (RSM). The final SGP contained 38.4 μg/g of organic selenium, 34.1 mg/g of intracellular glutathione, approximately 1×10 10 CFU/g live Saccharomyces cerevisiae and 1×10 12 CFU/g live Lactobacillus acidophilus . SGP had better protective effects on liver fibrosis than selenium, glutathione or probiotics, respectively. The hepatic silent information regulator 1 (SIRT1) level was down-regulated and oxidative stress, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, inflammation and phosphorylated MAPK was increased in CCl 4 -treated rats. However, SGP can significantly reverse these changes caused by CCl 4 . Our findings suggest that SGP was effective in attenuating liver fibrosis by the activation of SIRT1 signaling and attenuating hepatic oxidative stress, ER stress, inflammation and MAPK signaling.