Abstract: Objective To investigate the anti-apoptosis effect of oridonin in mice with lipopolysaccharide （LPS）/D-galactosamine（D-Gal）-induced acute liver failure （ALF）. Methods 25 mice were randomly divided into five groups（5 in each）,e.g.,normal,model,oridonin-intervened and oridonin-intervened at different doses,and oridonin for 12 days. ALF model was established in C57BL/6 mice by intraperitoneal injection of LPS/D-Gal. TUNEL,real-time PCR and Western blot were applied to related detection. Results Hepatocyte apoptosis rate in mice in model group was （36.4±1.8）%,significantly higher than that in oridonin-intervened groups [（19.4±3.3）% and （11.4±0.3）%,respectively,P<0.01];administration of oridonin significantly decreased hepatic TNF-α mRNA level in model group （P<0.01）;the expressions of mitochondrial-dependent pro-apoptotic protein such as JNK,bax,cytochrome C,cleaved caspase8/9/3 were upregulated in the model group as compared to in the control group; Pretreatment with oridonin significantly reversed the changes of apoptosis signal pathway induced by LPS/D-Gal, the expression of caspase 8 was not significantly changed and the expression of anti-apoptotic protein bcl-xl increased. Conclusion Oridonin has an anti-apoptosis effect on LPS/D-Gal-induced ALF in mice,and its mechanism may be related to the suppression of pro-apoptotic cytokine TNF-α and JNK-related pro-apoptotic signaling.

Key words: Acute liver failure, D-galactosamine, Oridonin, Apoptosis, Mice