Protective Effects of Three Flavones on Human Hepatocytes Injury Induced by Hydrogen Peroxide or Carbon Tetrachloride

Abstract The potential protective effects of three flavones (chrysin, apigenin and luteolin) against oxidative injury induced by H
₂
O
₂
or CCI
₄
on human hepatocytes were evaluated in our paper. The hepatocytes were exposed to one of three flavones at 20, 40 or 60 mumol/L for 30 min and then injured by H
₂
O
₂
or CCI
₄
for 1.5 h or 6 h. Biochemical assays showed that pretreatment of hepatocytes with three flavones had protective effects against oxidative injury, which were indicated by the improvement in cell viability, increased content of reduced glutathione in cells, reduction in lactate dehydrogenase leakage into culture medium and decreased formation of malondialdehyde in cells. alpha-Tocopherol, as reference, also had hepatoprotective effect, but its effectiveness was less than that of luteolin. It was shown that the order of hepatoprotective effect of three flavones on human hepatocytes was as follows: luteolin> apigenin> chrysin, which indicated strongly a clear structure-activity relationship between the numbers of hydroxyl group in the ring B of three flavones and their hepatoprotective effect.