Hepatoprotective effect of chitooligosaccharides against tert-butylhydroperoxide-induced damage in Chang liver cells

Hepatoprotective effect of chitooligosaccharides (COSs) with different molecular weights was investigated against tert-butylhydroperoxide (t-BHP)-induced damage in Chang liver cells. For that, we evaluated the cell viability, inhibition of production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), lipid peroxidation inhibition, glutathione (GSH) contents and the levels of antioxidant enzymes including catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidise (GPx) under oxidative damage by t-BHP. COSs does not have any harmful or inhibitory effect against cell growth at concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 1.0 mg/mL. Under oxidative damage, COSs increased the cell viability in Chang liver cells exposed to t-BHP and significantly (p < 0.05) reduced ROS generation and lipid peroxidation. In addition, COSs assisted to increase the GSH content and antioxidant enzyme activity. Hence, these results indicate that COSs protected Chang liver cells against oxidative damage induced by t-BHP via inhibiting production of ROS and lipid peroxidation, and the elevation of the levels of antioxidant enzymes.