BACKGROUND AND AIM: Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a leading cause of chronic liver disease with few therapeutic options. RSV prevents the development of steatosis in a number of experimental fatty liver (NAFL) models but the preventive or therapeutic effects on experimental NASH are not yet clarified, and clinical results on NAFLD are ambiguous. Thus, we aimed to compare the RSV-mediated preventive and therapeutic effects on experimental NAFL and NASH.

METHODS: We used a high-fat (HF) diet to generate a rat NAFL model and a high-fat, high-cholesterol (HFC) diet to generate a rat NASH model. The preventive and therapeutic potential of RSV was tested by adding RSV to the HF and HFC diet from study start or after one week of the diets. Animals were sacrificed after 8 weeks with appropriate controls. Blood and liver were harvested for analysis, including measurement of RSV metabolites.

RESULTS: RSV reduced the development of histological steatosis (P = 0.03) and partly triglyceride accumulation (fold change reduced from 3.6 to 2.4, P = 0.08) in the male NAFL model, though effects were moderate. In NASH prevention, RSV reduced the accumulation of triglyceride in hepatic tissue (P < 0.01), while there was no effect on biochemical, histopathological, or transcriptional NASH changes. Further, RSV had no therapeutic effect on established NASH. We found RSV metabolites but no parent RSV in serum or liver tissue, confirming low bioavailability.

CONCLUSIONS: These experimental findings suggest that a weak hepatic benefit of RSV treatment is seen in prevention of steatosis only. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.