Effect of Berberis vulgaris fruit extract on alpha-fetoprotein gene expression and chemical carcinogen metabolizing enzymes activities in hepatocarcinogenesis rats

Cancer is the second cause of death worldwide, among them liver cancer isthe fifth most important malignancy. the aim of this study was to investigate chemopreventiveactivity of berberis vulgaris fruit extract in hepatocarcinogenesis sprague dawley rats.materials and methods: fourty-four sprague dawley rats (6-8 weeks old, 150-250 g) weredivided into normal and cancerous. the rats in cancerous groups induced cancer byintraperitoneally injection of 200mg/kg diethylnitrosamine (den) follow by acetyllaminofluorene(0.02%aaf) dissolved in corn oil. animals in each branch were randomly assigned to receiveeither no treatment or 25, 50 or 100 mg/kg of berberis vulgaris fruit. the animals weresacrificed after 11 weeks of treatment and evaluated for liver enzyme activities. in addition,reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction was performed to identify the expression ofgenes encoding markers in hepatocytes (albumin, ل-fetoprotein).results: the activities of ggt, gst and alp between the cancerous and normal groupswere significantly different (p< 0.05). in cancerous groups treated with berberis vulgaris, theenzymes activities of gst, ggt and alp were significantly lower than control group (p< 0.05).rt-pcr as a very sensitive method did not show gene expression of afp in cancer groupstreated with berberis vulgaris fruit.conclusion : berberis vulgaris fruit can reduce the activity of liver enzymes and inhibit thegene expression of afp in rats during hepatocarcinogenesis. these results suggest thechemopreventive activity of berberis vulgaris fruit against hepatocarcinogenesis in animalmodels.