桑葉萃取物改善高脂飲食誘導db/db小鼠產生之糖尿病性脂肪肝炎

糖尿病性脂肪炎正嚴重威脅國人的健康，相關問題也日漸引起國人注意，加上醫學技術改進，脂肪肝控制良好可以很快的恢復是可逆的。現代人的飲食習慣正是造成脂肪肝的元凶，脂肪肝正是因為過多的脂肪堆積在肝臟進而影響肝臟功能，也容易造成肝病變的發生。桑葉過去已被證實具有抗氧化、降低血脂等功效，但是桑葉水萃取物(MLE)對於降低糖尿病性脂肪肝生成之功效尚未有研究做深入探討。首先利用高脂飲食誘導db 小鼠，並連續餵食250 mg/kg MLE十二周後評估對於糖尿病性脂肪肝生成的影響。實驗期間紀錄實驗動物之體重變化、血清AST、ALT、TG、Cho、肝臟抗氧化酵素和肝臟脂質過氧化情形。結果發現，給予MLE確實可以都達到減緩糖尿病性脂肪肝生成的情形。總和以上的結果，MLE確實具有預防與改善糖尿病性脂肪肝之作用，未來將可進一步發展成保護肝臟的保健食品之潛力。

Diabetic steatohepatitis, a leading cause of liver damage, comprises of a spectrum of liver abnormalities including the early fat deposition in the liver (hepatic steatosis) and advanced nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). In previous studies, mulberry leaves had been demonstrated to possess anti-oxidantant promoting effects. In this study, we have examined the effect of water extracts of mulberry leaves (MLE) on HFD-induced hepatic steatosis in db/db mice. The db/db were fed either a rodent normal chow, chow containing high-fat diet (HFD), or HFD with 250 mg/kg MLE in the diet for 12 weeks. We assayed antioxidant enzyme activity, such as SOD, catalase, GSH peroxidase. Our data indicated that MLE decreased liver fat content, liver weight, hepatic oxidative products, and prevented hepatic steatosis significantly. In serum, the AST, ALT and total triglyceride, total cholesterol decreased significantly in treating MLE group. MLE increased anti-oxidant enzyme activities in liver of HFD-fed db/db mice. These findings suggested that MLE effectively prevented and caused the regression of experimental diabetic steatosis. In the future, we could find the way to do more research about finding more effective compounds from mulberry leaves so that we would have more solution about treating liver disease.