FERMENTED SEA TANGLE (LAMINARIA JAPONICA) ATTENUATES ETHANOL-INDUCED OXIDATIVE STRESS IN SPRAGUE-DAWLEY RATS JAE-YOUNG CHA 1, *, MAHINDA SENEVIRATHNE 2, *, BAE-JIN LEE 3 , YOUNG MI KANG 3 , YOUNG-MOG KIM 4 , JIN-SOO KIM 5 , YOUNG-SU CHO 6,9 , WON-KYO JUNG 7 , CHANG-BUM AHN 2 and JAE-YOUNG JE 2,8 1 Technical Research Institute, Daesun Distilling Co., Ltd, Busan, Korea 2 School of Food Technology and Nutrition, Chonnam National University, Yeosu, Jeonnam 550-749, Korea 3 Marinebioprocess Co., Ltd, Busan, Korea 4 Department of Food Science and Technology, Pukyong National University, Busan, Korea 5 Division of Marine Life Science, Gyeongsang National University, Tongyong, Korea 6 Department of Biotechnology, Dong-A University, Busan 604-714, Korea 7 Department of Marine Life Science and Marine Life Research Center, Chosun University, Gwangju, Korea Corresponding author. 8 TEL: +82-61-659-7416; FAX: +82-61-659-7419; EMAIL: jjy1915@chonnam.ac.kr. 9 TEL: +82-51-200-7586; FAX: +82-51-200-5736; EMAIL: choys@dau.ac.kr *These authors contributed equally to this work. Accepted for Publication June 20, 2011 doi:10.1111/j.1745-4514.2011.00603.x ABSTRACT In this study, we fermented sea tangle (FST) using Lactobacillus brevis BJ20, and its protective effect against the ethanol-induced hepatotoxicity in Sprague-Dawley rats was evaluated. Administration of ethanol to rats for 3 weeks induced liver damage with significant increase in hepatic malondialdehyde level and decrease in glu- tathione and antioxidant enzyme activities including catalase, superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase. However, pretreatment of rats with FST inhibited the ethanol-induced oxidative stress in liver by suppressing the lipid peroxidation, and maintained the levels of antioxidant enzymes as well as glutathione. Further, FST markedly decreased the lipid peroxidation in many vital organs such as kidney,heart, microsome, mitochondria, testis and spleen of rats. The biochemical changes were consistent with histopathological observations indicating marked hepatoprotective effect of FST. Hence, these results suggested that the FST exhibit potent hepatopro- tection against the ethanol-induced oxidative stress in rats. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS In this study, hepatoprotective effects of fermented sea tangle (FST) against the ethanol-induced hepatic damage in rats were evaluated. The FST significantly attenuated oxidative stress by induced ethanol by increasing antioxidant enzyme activities including catalase, superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase, and in addition inhibited the lipid peroxidation in many vital organs. These results sug- gested that the FST can be used as potential ingredient for functional food and/or beverage. INTRODUCTION Alcohol is a direct systemic toxin, and alcoholic liver disease remains one of the serious health problems although it is widely consumed in the world. Many studies have revealed a strong consistent relationship between alcohol abuse and alcoholic liver disease (Husain et al. 2001; Russo et al. 2004). Various reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as superoxide radical, hydroxyl radical and 1-hydroxyethyl radical are gen- erated from the metabolic activation of ethanol and may cause for the oxidative degeneration of cellular molecules, which results to cell injury and dysfunction of liver and other organs (Cederbaum et al. 2001; Abraham et al. 2002; Purohit et al. 2003). Generally, cell possesses a well-developed Journal of Food Biochemistry ISSN 1745-4514 80 Journal of Food Biochemistry 37 (2013) 80–87 © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.