Research Article The Hypocholesterolemic Effects of Eryngium carlinae F. Delaroche Are Mediated by the Involvement of the Intestinal Transporters ABCG5 and ABCG8 Ibrahim Guillermo Castro-Torres, 1 Minarda De la O-Arciniega, 2 Elia Brosla Naranjo-Rodríguez, 3 Víctor Alberto Castro-Torres, 1 Miguel Ángel Domínguez-Ortíz, 4 and Mariano Martínez-Vázquez 1 1 Instituto de Qu´ ımica, Universidad Nacional Aut´ onoma de M´ exico (UNAM), Ciudad de M´ exico, Mexico 2 ´ Area Acad´ emica de Farmacia, Instituto de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Aut´ onoma del Estado de Hidalgo, Pachuca de Soto, HGO, Mexico 3 Departamento de Farmacia, Facultad de Qu´ ımica, UNAM, Ciudad de M´ exico, Mexico 4 Laboratorio de Productos Naturales, Instituto de Ciencias B´ asicas, Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa de Enr´ ıquez, VER, Mexico Correspondence should be addressed to Mariano Mart´ ınez-V´ azquez; marvaz@unam.mx Received 13 August 2017; Revised 24 October 2017; Accepted 22 November 2017; Published 14 December 2017 Academic Editor: Roberto K. N. Cuman Copyright © 2017 Ibrahim Guillermo Castro-Torres et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Hypercholesterolemia is a metabolic disorder characterized by a high concentration of cholesterol in the blood. Eryngium carlinae is a medicinal plant used to treat lipid diseases. Te goal of this work was to evaluate, in a model of hypercholesterolemia in mice, the hypocholesterolemic efect of a hydroalcoholic extract of E. carlinae and its main metabolite, D-mannitol. Biochemical analyses of serum lipids and hepatic enzymes were performed by photocolorimetry. We performed histopathological studies of the liver and the expression of the intestinal cholesterol transporters Abcg5 and Abcg8 was determined by standard western blot method. Our results showed that hydroalcoholic extract at doses of 100 mg/kg and D-mannitol at doses of 10 mg/kg reduced the concentration of both total cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol, without altering the concentration of HDL cholesterol and without damage to hepatocytes. Treatment with the extract increased Abcg8 intestinal transporter expression, while D-mannitol decreased the expression of the two Abcg5/Abcg8 transporters, compared with the hypercholesterolemic group. Considering that Abcg5/Abcg8 transporters perform cholesterol efux, our results demonstrate that the lipid-lowering efect of the hydroalcoholic extract may be associated with the increase of Abcg8 expression, but the hypocholesterolemic efect of D-mannitol is independent of overexpression of these intestinal transporters and probably they have another mechanism of action. 1. Introduction Hypercholesterolemia is a metabolic disorder characterized by an increase in the concentration of plasma cholesterol (above 200 mg/dL); it is considered the primary risk factor for developing cardiovascular disease (atherosclerosis) [1, 2]. Hypercholesterolemia can be classifed as primary if this is associated with congenital problems or improper food habits. When the hypercholesterolemia is associated with some disease such as diabetes mellitus, acute renal failure, or liver failure or the intake of types of drugs it is classifed as secondary. Primary hypercholesterolemia is the most prevalent [3]. HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (“statins”) represent the most efective and widely prescribed drugs cur- rently available for the reduction of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Although in general these drugs have proven their therapeutic value adverse events have been reported. Skeletal muscle-related events are the most common adverse events of statin treatment [4]. Tere has also been an increase in the number of reports of suspected psychiatric adverse reactions associated with statins [5]. Furthermore, statins may partially operate by lowering testosterone [5]. Hindawi Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2017, Article ID 3176232, 7 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/3176232