Effect of Chinese Herbal Medicine Mixture 919 Syrup on Regulation of the Ghrelin Pathway and Intestinal Microbiota in Rats With Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

FIGURE 1. Timeline of 919 syrup’s toxicity test (A). Timeline of experiment assessing effect of 919 syrup on NAFLD rats (B).

FIGURE 2. Effect of 919 syrup on feed intake and body weight in normal rats. (A) Feed intake. (B) Body weight.

FIGURE 3. Effect of 919 syrup on blood glucose and hepatorenal function in normal rats. (A) Glucose. (B) Hepatorenal function.

FIGURE 4. HE staining of liver in the control and 919TJ group.

FIGURE 5. Effect of 919 syrup on body weight and feed intake in rats with NAFLD. (A) Body weight. (B) Feed intake. *P < 0.05, ***P < 0.001 (NAFLD group vs. 919TJ group, n = 8 per group).

FIGURE 6. Effect of 919 syrup on Ghrelin pathway-related genes in the hypothalamus and stomach of NAFLD rats. (A) Hypothalamus. (B) Stomach. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001 (n = 8 per group).

FIGURE 7. Changes in Ghrelin protein levels in the liver of rats as shown by western blot. C, control group. N, NAFLD group. T, 919TJ group. *P < 0.05 (n = 6 per group).

FIGURE 8. Rank-Abundance curve of intestinal microbiota. The abscissa is the rank of species’ number (or OTU) at a taxonomic level, and the ordinate is the relative percentage of species’ number at that taxonomic level. (A) OUT level. (B) Phylum level. (C) Genus level. TJ: 919 syrup group.

FIGURE 9. Alpha diversity analysis of intestinal microbiota (phylum level). (A) Community richness. (B) Community evenness. (C) Community diversity. (D) Community coverage. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001.

FIGURE 10. Community barplot analysis of intestinal microbiota. (A) Phylum level (Others: <0.001). (B) Genus level (Others: <0.02). The ordinate is the sample name, the abscissa is the proportion of species in the sample, columns with different colors represent different species, and the length of the columns represents the proportion of the species.

FIGURE 11. Kruskal–Wallis H test bar plot of intestinal microbiota. (A) Phylum level. (B) Genus level. The Y axis represents the bacterial names at the phylum/genus level, the X axis represents the average relative abundance of bacteria in different groups, the columns with different colors represent different groups, and the rightmost number is the P-value. *P ≤ 0.05, **P ≤ 0.01, ***P ≤ 0.001.

FIGURE 12. PCA and PCOA analyses of intestinal microbiota. The X and Y axes represent two selected principal component axes. Percentage represents the degree of explanation of the principal component to the difference in sample composition. The scales on the X and Y axes are relative distances. The closer the two sample points, the more similar the species composition of the two samples. The boxplot represents the distribution dispersion of the three groups of samples on the PC1 axis. (A) PCA. (B) PCOA. Z, control group. G, NAFLD group. T, 919TJ group.