Abstract: Objective: To study the protective effect of polysaccharides from Pleurotus cornucopiae (PCNP) on CCl4-induced acute liver injury in mice. Methods: The mice were randomly divided into normal control group and CCl4-induced acute liver injury model group, bifendate treatment group (positive control, at 150 mg/(kg ·d)) and PCNP treatment group (400 mg/(kg ·d)). The administration of bifendate and PCNP was performed by gavage once a day for 30 days. After the last administration, the model, bifendate treatment and PCNP treatment groups were intragastrically given 1% CCl4 in salad oil solution at the dosage of 80 mg/kg to induce acute liver injury. At 24 h after the administration of CCl4, all the mice were sacrificed to assay antioxidant activities in the blood and liver. Meanwhile, hepatic histopathological changes were also examined. Results: The contents of MDA in the liver and serum AST, ALT and ALP activities revealed an obvious decrease in the PCNP treatment group when compared to the model group, while the contents of GSH and SOD activity in the liver exhibited an obvious increase. Conclusion: PCNP can improve pathological liver injury distinctly and protect against CCl4-induced acute liver injury in mice.

Key words: Pleurotus cornucopiae polysaccharides, acute liver injury, antioxidation, serum, CCl4