Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Oriental Pharmacy and Experimental Medicine https://doi.org/10.1007/s13596-019-00392-y RESEARCH ARTICLE Antifbrotic efects of fermented black radish (Raphanus sativus L. var. niger) on chronic liver injury in rats Jeongtae Kim 1  · Meejung Ahn 1  · Yuna Choi 1  · Poornima Ekanayake 1  · Gi‑Ok Kim 2  · Taekyun Shin 1 Received: 3 July 2019 / Accepted: 14 August 2019 © Institute of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University 2019 Abstract We evaluated the antifbrotic efects of fermented black radish (FBR) on carbon tetrachloride (CCl 4 )-induced chronic liver injury in rats. Serum biochemical analysis indicated that FBR treatment attenuated the upregulation of alanine aminotrans- ferase and aspartate aminotransferase. Moreover, Sirius red staining and histopathological examination revealed decreased fbrosis and infammation in FBR-treated rats compared with CCl 4 + vehicle-treated rats. Western blot analysis of alpha- smooth muscle actin expression levels confrmed the downregulation of fbrosis in the FBR treatment group compared with the CCl 4 + vehicle treatment group. These results suggest that FBR treatment suppressed liver fbrosis in CCl 4 -exposed rats. Keywords Carbon tetrachloride · Chronic injury · Fermented black radish · Fibrosis · Liver Introduction Radish (Raphanus sativus L.), a representative cruciferous plant, is a routinely consumed vegetable and is used as an ethnobotanical resource. Recently, crude extracts of colored radishes, including black radish (Raphanus sativus L. var. niger), were shown to mitigate cholesterol gallstones (Cas- tro-Torres et al. 2014), alimentary hyperlipidaemia (Lugasi et al. 2005) and ethanol-induced gastric injury (Ahn et al. 2013, 2016b) through antioxidant activity. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which is caused by metabolic syndrome, is characterized by non- alcoholic steatohepatitis, simple steatosis, and liver fbrosis (Ahmed et al. 2015). The prevalence of NAFLD is projected to increase due to changes in dietary habits, sedentary life- styles, and population aging. The prognosis of NAFLD depends greatly on the severity of hepatic steatosis and fbrosis, and treatment is focused on the suppression of infammation and fbrosis in the liver (Ahmed et al. 2015). As NAFLD is a major cause of chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, various therapeutic strategies, including plant extracts, are being tested. Carbon tetrachloride (CCl 4 ) is a strong hepatotoxic chemical that is used to induce chronic hepatic fbrosis to evaluate the therapeutic potential of eth- nobotanical resources (Ahn et al. 2014; Araya et al. 2019). Food fermentation, which involves bioactive peptides, using microorganisms such as Lactobacillus spp. confers benefcial efects, including antioxidant, anti-allergic, and anti-infammatory efects (Sanlier et al. 2019). In a previous study, we demonstrated the benefcial efects of fermented black radish (FBR) using Lactobacillus plantarum (Kim et al. 2017). However, little is known about the efects of FBR on liver fbrosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antifbrotic and anti-infammatory efects of FBR in rats with CCl 4 -induced chronic liver injury. Materials and methods Animals Male Sprague–Dawley rats (6–8 weeks old, 200–250 g; Ori- entBio, Kyunggido, Korea) were maintained at a controlled temperature (26 ± 2 °C; 12-h light/dark cycle) and supplied a standard diet and ad libitum treated water. All experimen- tal procedures were in accordance with the Guidelines for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of Jeju National University (permit no. 2016-0040). * Taekyun Shin shint@jejunu.ac.kr 1 Department of Veterinary Anatomy, College of Veterinary Medicine and Veterinary Medical Research Institute, Jeju National University, Jeju 63243, Republic of Korea 2 Jeju Biodiversity Research Institute, Jeju Technopark, Seoguipo City, Jeju 63608, Republic of Korea