Fig. 4

Effect of taurine and/or TPs on histopathological changes in NASH rats. Gross pathological observation showed ruddy liver in the normal group, and yellow hepatomegaly in the model group and model control group. When treated NASH rats with taurine, wsTP, lsTP, taurine + wsTP, or taurine + lsTP, color of liver turned red more or less. When compared with taurine treatment group, wsTP treatment group or lsTP treatment group, respectively, the color of liver in the combination treatment groups (taurine + wsTP and taurine + lsTP) appeared redder (a). In the taurine treatment group, liver histological examinations showed normal liver or mild microvesicular steatosis without inflammatory infiltration or fibrosis in the normal group. Severe macro- and microvesicular steatosis (yellow arrow), infiltration of mild lobular mixed neutrophilic and mononuclear cells (black arrow), even focal necrosis, perisinusoidal and portal fibrosis, severe hepatocellular ballooning (red arrow) were observed in the model group and model control group. There were remarkable histological improvements in steatosis and inflammation in taurine treatment group, wsTP treatment group, lsTP treatment group, taurine + wsTP combination treatment group and taurine + lsTP combination treatment groups (P < 0.05), compared with model group or model control group. In addition, the histological improvements in combination treatment group were more remarkable than in taurine group, wsTP group and lsTP group, respectively (p < 0.05) (b). NASH, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis; Nor, normal group; Mod, model group; Mod cont, model control group; Tau, taurine treatment group; wsTP, water soluble tea polyphenols treatment group; lsTP, lipid soluble tea polyphenols treatment group; Tau + wsTP, taurine and water soluble tea polyphenols treatment group; Tau + lsTP, taurine and lipid soluble tea polyphenols treatment group; HE, hematoxylin and eosin staining