To improve bioavailability and stability of hydrophobic and hydrophilic compounds, nanoemulsions are good alternatives as delivery systems because of their nontoxic and nonirritant nature. Glutathione (GSH) suffers from low stability in water, where its encapsulation in nanoemulsions is a powerful strategy to its stability in aqueous systems. The aim of this study was to obtain nanoemulsions from the hydrophobic/hydrophilic contents of N. sativa seed oil so as to improve GSH stability along with bioavailability of N. sativa seed oil. Then, the prepared nanoemulsions were tested for in vitro hepatoprotective activity against ethanol toxicity. To the best of our knowledge, there is no study on the test of nanoemulsions by the combination of Nigella sativa seed oils and GSH in hepatoprotective activity. Here, nanoemulsions with different contents were prepared using Nigella sativa seed oils. Content analyses and characterisation studies of prepared nanoemulsions were carried out. In order to investigate the protective effects against to ethanol exposure, THLE-2 cells were pretreated with nanoemulsions for 2 h with the maximum benign dose (0.5 mg/mL of nanoemulsions). Ethanol (400 mM) was introduced to pretreated cells and nontreated cells for 48- or 72-h periods, followed by cell viability assay was carried out. Fluorescence microscopy tests revealed the introduction of the nanoemulsions into THLE-2 cells. The findings show that nanoformulations have promising in vitro hepatoprotective effects on the THLE-2 cell line against ethanol exposure.
Keywords: Ethanol; Nigella sativa; glutathione; hepatoprotective activity; nanoemulsion.
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