Authors : Huijuan Xu, Yangquan Zhu and Lianyun Shuai
Abstract: Liver fibrosis is the main damage of Schistosoma japonicum (S. japonicum) in chronic and advanced stages. Praziquantel (PZQ) is currently used for all forms of schistosomiasis. Ganoderma Lucidum (GL) as a traditional chinese medicine has been used in many fields such as anti-oxidation, anti-tumorigenesis, immunoloregulation and anti-fibrosis. But the therapy of GL on schistosomiasis and its mechanism were not well revealed. To investigate the anti-fibrotic effects of GL and/or PZQ on S. japonicum-induced liver fibrosis, 60 Kunming mice were infected with S. japonicum repeatedly and treated with Normal Saline (NS), GL, PZQ, GL combined with PZQ, respectively. The results showed that GL treatment could relieve liver injury by decreasing serum Hyaluronic Acid (HA) and Laminin (LN) level and reducing spleen index ameliorating liver injury of infected mice. Researcher also found that the collagen 3 mRNA and TGF-a1 mRNA expression decreased in the mice of GL group and GL combined with PZQ could obtain much better results. Overall the findings revealed that GL can relieve liver fibrosis of S. japonicumespecially when combined with PZQ.
Huijuan Xu, Yangquan Zhu and Lianyun Shuai, 2012. Anti-Fibrotic Effects of Ganoderma Lucidum and Praziquantel on Liver Fibrosis of Schistosoma japonicum. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 11: 2342-2346.