Corn oligopeptides inhibit Akt/NF-kappa B signaling pathway and inflammatory factors to ameliorate CCl4-induced hepatic fibrosis in mice

In this study, the effect of corn oligopeptides (COPs) with liver protection activity on mice with hepatic fibrosis (HF) induced by carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) was studied. It was proved that COPs can ameliorate the liver injury and inflammation caused by CCl4 by histopathology and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in mice. The expression of Akt/NF-kappa B inflammatory pathway was determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and western blotting (WB). The results showed that COPs inhibited the expression of key proteins in the inflammatory pathway. In conclusion, the results of this study suggested that COPs could improve CCl4-induced HF by improving liver injury, reducing the expression of inflammatory factors, and inhibiting the expression of inflammatory signaling pathways.