Hepatoprotective effect of plant polysaccharides from natural resources: A review of the mechanisms and structure-activity relationship

Liver injury is a common pathological process, which can result in fatty liver, cirrhosis, fibrosis and even cancer. Polysaccharides isolated from plants have been regarded as an important resource of anti-hepatic lesion due to widely distributed in nature and low toxicity. In order to have a better understand of the protective mechanism on liver function, a comprehensive review of research into plant polysaccharides during recent five years was performed. In total, 66 types of polysaccharides from 58 kinds of plant have shown hepatoprotective effect through the pathological process of inflammation, apoptosis and oxidative stress by regulating NF-κB, JAK/STAT, TGF-β, PI3K/AKT, MAPK, caspase cascade, p53 and Nrf2-Keap1 pathways, lipid metabolism as well as cytochrome P450 enzymes. Moreover, correlations between structure and hepatoprotective activities of plant polysaccharides including primary structure, conformation properties, structural modification and content of uronic acid were also preliminarily explored. This review will provide a comprehensive perspective for better understanding the mechanism and development of polysaccharides against liver injury.