P52 | MORPHOLOGICAL AND IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL EVALUATION OF THE ANTI-INFLAMMATORY AND ANTIOXIDANT PROPERTIES OF HEMP EXTRACTS ON THE LIVER OF RATS INVOLVED IN INFLAMMATION CAUSED BY LPS

A. Miller¹, M. Kotanska², M. Bednarski², G.P. Lombardo³, V. Natale³, G. Pirracchio³, L. Spiccia³, S. Pergolizzi³, G. Rizzo⁴, E.R. Lauriano³ | ¹Department of Veterinary Sciences, University of Messina, Messina, Italy; ²Department of Pharmacological Screening, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland: ³Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical, and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Messina, Italy; ⁴Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Messina, Italy

The liver of mice has a lobular arrangement based on the distributions of portal regions and central venules, like the general histological structure of other mammalian species¹. Bacterial endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS) influences inflammatory mediator levels and contributes to developing a systemic inflammatory response, which can lead to liver damage. Cannabis sativa L. is an aromatic annual herb belonging to the Cannabaceae family, and it is widely cultivated around the world. Several studies show different pharmacological properties, such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, neuroprotective, anxiolytic, and anticonvulsant activity of hemp^2,3. This study aims to characterise mouse liver immune cells involved in inflammation caused by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and how inflammation responds to treatment with aqueous extracts from two by-products of the hemp-seed oil process, namely hemp seed cake flour and hemp seed protein concentrate, as well as their enzymatic hydrolysates. In this study, immune hepatic cells have been characterized with the following antibodies: Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), TNFα, and IL-6⁴. Immunoistochemical results showed a significant difference between control, LPS-infected, and hemptreated samples. Macrophages were positive for these antibodies in the samples obtained from the inflamed mouse liver, especially in the region between the portal space and the central vein. In control samples and samples treated with aqueous hemp extracts, instead, there is an extremely small number of antibody-positive cells, which means that the extracts contributed to a reduction in inflammation. In conclusion, this preliminary study shows the antiinflammatory and antioxidant effects of industrial hemp.