Corn oligopeptides inhibit Akt/NF‐κB signaling pathway and inflammatory factors to ameliorate CCl4‐induced hepatic fibrosis in mice

In this study, the effect of corn oligopeptides (COPs) with liver protection activity on mice with hepatic fibrosis (HF) induced by carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) was studied. It was proved that COPs can ameliorate the liver injury and inflammation caused by CCl4 by histopathology and enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay in mice. The expression of Akt/NF‐κB inflammatory pathway was determined by real‐time polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) and western blotting (WB). The results showed that COPs inhibited the expression of key proteins in the inflammatory pathway. In conclusion, the results of this study suggested that COPs could improve CCl4‐induced HF by improving liver injury, reducing the expression of inflammatory factors, and inhibiting the expression of inflammatory signaling pathways. Practical applications The corns around the world are mainly used as animal feed, and the liver protective activity of corn oligopeptides (COPs) is rarely applied to the market. The development of COPs liver protective food can prevent the occurrence of liver‐related diseases such as hepatic fibrosis to a certain extent. Developing COPs liver protecting food can improve the utilization value of corn. It is hoped that this study can provide experimental support for the application of COPs in liver protection food. The liver fibrosis model of Kunming mice was established by intragastric administration of carbon tetrachloride. However, gavage of corn oligopeptides can improve liver fibrosis caused by carbon tetrachloride by alleviating liver injury, relieving inflammation and inhibiting the expression of Akt/NF‐KB signaling pathway.