Protective Effect of Purified Polysaccharides from Cordyceps militaris Substrate on Acute Ethanolic Hepatotoxicity in Male Mice

Two novel polysaccharides fractions were isolated from Cordyceps militaris substrate polysaccharides (CMSP) by DEAE-52 cellulose and Sephadex G-100 column chromatography, and named as CMSP-1 and CMSP-2. The CMSP-1 was a heteropolysaccharide mainly composed of sorbin, D-mannose, D-glucose, galactose, arabinose, with the molar ratios of 1.00:6.32:10.23:2.86:1.02, and the molecular weight of CMSP-1 was 10715.2 Da. The CMSP-1 was used to investigate the protective effect on acute ethanolic hepatotoxicity (AAH) in male mice. The results indicated that oral administration of CMSP-1 could significantly decrease the liver index, and increase body weight in mice with AAH. CMSP-1 could also significantly increase the levels of SOD, GSH and GSH-PX, and decrease the levels of ALT, AST, TG, VLDL and MDA in AAH model mice. Moreover, Histopathological examination of liver showed that CMSP-1 could significantly alleviate the symptoms of liver injury caused by ethanol, such as swelling of hepatocytes, loose cytoplasm and lipid changes. Therefore, CMSP-1 has obvious protective effect on AAH model mice, and has a good prospect in functional foods or natural medicine.