Preliminary characterization and potential hepatoprotective effect of polysaccharides from Cipangopaludina chinensis

In the present study, we investigated the preliminary characterization, in vitro antioxidant and in vivo heptoprotective activities of polysaccharides from Cipangopaludina chinensis (CCPS). The results of chemical and gas chromatography analysis indicated that CCPS was mostly composed of glucose with high contents of uronic acid and sulfate. For antioxidant activities in vitro, CCPS showed medium lipid peroxidation inhibition effect and high Fe²⁺ chelating and hydroxyl radical scavenging activities. For hepatoprotective activity in vivo, the administration of CCPS significantly decreased the serum levels of alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase, inhibited the formation of malondialdehyde in liver and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) in serum and restored the liver activities of superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase in BCG/LPS-induced immunological liver injury mice. The results suggested that CCPS had a significant protective effect against BCG/LPS-induced immunological liver injury. The hepatoprotective effect of CSPS might be partly due to its immunoregulatory effect by inhibiting TNF-α production and antioxidant activities to protect biological systems against the oxidative stress, which were dependent on the chemical and structural properties of CCPS. Further work on the structure of CCPS is in progress.