Chemicals and reagents

BSP (≥95% titration) was purchased from Dalian MeiLun Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (Dalian, China). TAA was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany) and dissolved in physiological saline (0.9% NaCl) to give a 4% solution for animal experiments. Rabbit anti-rat zonula occludens (ZO)-1 and occludin were obtained from ProteinTech Group, Inc. (Chicago, IL, USA). ELISA kits for serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT; cat. no. C009-2) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST; cat. no. C0010-2) were purchased from Nanjing Jiancheng Bioengineering Institute (Nanjing, China). ELISA kits for IL-6 (cat. no. E-EL-R0015), TNF-α (cat. no. E-EL-R0019) and endotoxin (cat. no. E-EL-R0589) were purchased from Elabscience Biotechnology (Wuhan, China). GAPDH and horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-labeled secondary antibodies were acquired from Wuhan Boster Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (Wuhan, China). RNAiso Plus, PrimeScript™ RT reagent and SYBR Premix Ex Taq kits were purchased from Takara Bio, Inc. (Otsu, Japan).