Efeitos antifibróticos de ácido gálico em células estreladas hepáticas ativadas

Abstract

Fibrosis is a chronic liver disease that is a major cause of human mortality and is characterized by the accumulation of extracellular matrix in response to chronic liver injury. Important causes of chronic liver injury are: viral hepatitis, metabolic diseases, autoimmune diseases and exposure to chemicals, such as alcohol or drugs. The GRX cells are a representative line of hepatic stellate cells (HSC), which is associated with development of fibrosis, in the last stage is the cirrhosis. In healthy liver, these cells exhibit a phenotype or quiescent lipocyte characterized by its hability to store lipid droplets. Gallic acid is involved in several biological processes such as cell growth inhibition and apoptosis also has a variety of pharmacological actions, including antioxidant activity, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and antitumor. The aim of this study was to investigate the in vitro effects of gallic acid on the phenotype of HSC. The results showed that gallic acid is able to reduce cell proliferation, induce quiescent phenotype in HSCs by increasing lipid droplets, probably by activating peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gama, decrease of transforming growth factor 1 signaling and decreased expression of collagen type I. These results demonstrate that the gallic acid may be a novel therapeutic agent for treating hepatic fibrosis.