Qing-brick tea alleviates metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease: involvement of AMPK/ACC and SREBP1/FAS pathways.

Metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) is often asymptomatic in its early stages and exhibits a higher prevalence than both viral hepatitis and alcoholic liver disease, posing a significant challenge to modern healthcare. Qing-brick tea (QBT), a traditional Chinese tea characterized by its unique processing method and brick-like form, contains bioactive compounds including epicatechin, epicatechin gallate, gallic acid, and catechin.This study aims to investigate the preventive effects and underlying the mechanisms of QBT on MAFLD in mice induced by a high-fat diet in combination with dextran sulfate sodium in vivo and a hyperlipidemic environment of HepG2 cells in vitro. The results demonstrate that QBT effectively prevents the development of MAFLD, which may be associated with the activation of the AMPK/ACC pathway and the suppression of SREBP1/FAS signaling.These findings provide an experimental foundation and theoretical basis for the further development and utilization of QBT.