Objective  To study the effect of sterile black fungus nanoparticles (SBFN) on alcohol-induced liver injury in mice.

  Methods  Totolly 70 Kunming mice were randomly divided into a normal control group, alcohol-induced injury model group, positive medication group, sterile black fungus powder (SBFP) group and low/moderate/high-dose SBFN group. After different treatments of once a day continuously for 7 days, all the mice were gavaged with 50% ethanol at the dose of 15 mL/kg to establish acute livery injury model, except for those of normal control mice with distilled water. For all the mice of different groups, contents of glutamic oxalacetic transaminase (GOT) and glutamic pyruvic transaminase (GPT) in plasma, superoxide dismutase (SOD), malondialdehyde (MDA) and catalase (CAT) in liver hemogenate were detected and compared; expressions of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in plasma were measured with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA); the expression of interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) in liver tissues was determined with immunohistochemical method. Pathogenic alterations in liver tissues were observed with haematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining.

  Results  Compared with those of the mice of acute liver injury model group, reduced contents of GOT/GPT and expressions of TNF-α/IL-6 but increased CAT activity in plasma, decreased MDA but increased SOD and CAT in liver hemogenates, and declined expression of IL-1β in liver tissues were detected in the mice of SBFN and SBFP groups. Significantly alleviated morphological and structural changes in liver tissues were also observed in the mice of SBFN and SBFP groups in comparison with those in the mice of the injury model group. All the above liver injury-related indicators of the mice of SBFN groups were obviously better than those of the mice of SBFP groups under the treatment with the same dosage.

  Conclusion  Sterile black fungus nanoparticles could obviously alleviate acute liver injury induced by ethanol in mice.