Objective:To study the protective effect of the Liuyueqing saponins on the CCl4-induced liver injure in rats. Method: Sixty-six SD rats were randomly divided into two groups: 10 in normal group and 56 in hepatic injury model group. The rats in hepatic injury model group were established by 1 mL·kg-1of 50% CCl4 ig

twice a week for continuous 6 weeks. The rats in normal control group were given normal saline (NS). Six rats of them were taken for liver pathological inspection

the hepatic injury model was conformed. Fifty rats were randomly divided into 5 groups: model group

positive control group (colchicin

0.2 mg·kg-1)

low-

medium-and high-dosage groups of Liuyueqing saponins (20

40

80 mg·kg-1). The rats in the normal control group and model group were given normal saline. The drugs were given to rats one time daily for 30 consecutive days. At the end of 30 days

the blood was collected and examined the levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT)

aspartate aminotransferase (AST)

tumor necrosis factor -α(TNF-α)

and Interleukin-6 (IL-6)in serum; then expression of COX-2 in liver was detected by using Western blot analysis. HE staining of rats pathomorphological change was observed. Result: Compared to model control group ALT

AST

TNF-α

IL-6 was (91.62±4.84) U·L-1

(98.56±9.37) U·L-1

(135.64±5.38) ng·L-1

(147.38±6.34) ng·L-1

low-

medium-and high-dosage groups of Liuyueqing saponins significantly decreased the levels of ALT(80.94±4.68)

(69.51±4.07)

(65.89±3.85)U·L-1

AST (90.87±8.76)

(81.53±6.62)

(73.64±5.71)U·L-1

TNF-α (98.57±3.09)

(81.74±4.33)

(65.93±3.20) ng·L-1

IL-6 (115.78±4.81)

(95.83±5.34)

(74.29±4.76) ng·L-1in rat liver injury induced by CCl4 (P<0.05); down-regulated the expression of COX-2 level (0.91±0.03)

(0.79±0.06)

(0.67±0.04) in hepatic tissue (P<0.05)

and alleviated the liver damage condition. Conclusion: The results suggest that Liuyueqing saponins has protective effect on the CCl4-induced liver injury in rats

which mechanism may be related to anti-inflammatory effect.