Perilla Oil Supplementation Ameliorates High-Fat/High-Cholesterol Diet Induced Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Rats via Enhanced Fecal Cholesterol and Bile Acid Excretion

Recent experimental studies and clinical trials have shown that hepatic cholesterol metabolic disorders are closely related to the development of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The main goal of this study was to investigate the efficacy of the perilla oil rich in alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) against NASH and gain a deep insight into its potential mechanisms. Rats were fed a high-fat/high-cholesterol diet (HFD) supplement with perilla oil (POH) for 16 weeks. Routine blood biochemical tests and histological staining illustrated that the perilla oil administration improved HFD-induced hyperlipidemia, reduced hepatic steatosis, and inhibited hepatic inflammatory infiltration and fibrosis. Perilla oil also increased fecal bile acid and cholesterol excretion. Hepatic RNA-Seq analysis found that the long time perilla oil supplement notably modified the gene expression involved in cholesterol metabolism. Our results implicate that, after long-term high level dietary cholesterol feeding, rat liver endogenous synthesis of cholesterol and cholesterol-rich low density lipoprotein uptake was significantly inhibited, and perilla oil did not modulate expression of genes responsible for cholesterol synthesis but did increase cholesterol removed from hepatocytes by conversion to bile acids and increased fecal cholesterol excretion.