Suppression by Hydrangeae Dulcis Folium of D-galactosamine-induced liver injury in vitro and in vivo.

Hydrangeae Dulcis Folium, the fermented and dried leaves of Hydrangea macrophylla SER. var. thunbergii MAKINO, suppressed D-galactosamine-induced liver injury by 85.

Suppression of ethanol and lipopolysaccharide-induced liver injury by extracts of Hydrangeae Dulcis Folium in rats.

In female SD rats that were injected with 4 g/kg BW ethanol p.o. followed by a 5 mg/kg BW lipopolysaccharide (LPS) i.

Small scale rat hepatocyte primary culture with applications for screening hepatoprotective substances.

Isolated hepatocytes are known to maintain their physiological functions for over a week when cultured on Matrigel, artificially reconstituted from basement membrane components. Although this culture technique has been frequently used in research on hepatocyte functions, there has been a limitation on its application for small scale experiments due to some technical problems. By using micro-culture plates with 96 round-bottom wells, we succeeded in coating the wells uniformly with Matrigel.

Dietary glutathione protects rats from diabetic nephropathy and neuropathy.

Recently, much attention has focused on the role of oxidative stress in the various forms of tissue damage in patients with diabetes. The aim of this study was to examine the involvement of oxidative stress in the progression of kidney dysfunction and neuropathy in diabetes and to evaluate the potential usefulness of glutathione (GSH) in diabetes. We examined the effect that treatment of streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats with GSH has on the renal and neural functions.