Figure 5.

Effects of the flavonoids on the shingomyelinase activity and ceramide production induced in the liver by the CCl₄. CCl₄ (50% in corn oil, 4 mg/kg body weight) was injected to rats subcutaneously daily for 4 days and fed by ethanol (1 %, 5 ml/kg body weight) daily for 6 days Some of the animals were fed by chamiloflan (160 mg/kg body weight) daily for 4 days together with CCl₄ injections and 2 days after last CCl₄ treatment. Control rats were injected subcutaneously by corn oil (2 ml/kg body weight) daily for 4 days and fed by ethanol (1 %, 5 ml/kg body weight) daily for 6 days. Liver homogenates were used for the determination of the neutral SMase activity (pH 7.4) (A) and ceramide generation under neutral (pH 7.4) and acidic (pH 4.5) conditions (B) as described in the "Materials and Methods". The [methyl-¹⁴C-phosphorylcholine]sphingomyelin as a substrate was used. Results are mean ± S.E. of six experiments performed in duplicate. * P < 0.05, CCl₄-treated rats vs. control; ** P < 0.05, CCl₄+flavonoid-treated rats vs. CCl₄-treated.