Abstract: Abstract: C-phycocyanin (C-PC) is a pigmented protein from marine algae, which demonstrates fair therapeutic effects on a variety of inflammatory diseases and tumors. It also shows protective effects on various kinds of liver diseases, such as liver damage caused by drugs or toxic substances, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, liver fibrosis and liver ischemia-reperfusion injury. These beneficial effects on liver injury are mainly achieved by regulating the signal pathways of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB), phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase / protein kinase B (PI3K/Akt) and adenosine monophosphate (AMP)-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and inhibiting oxidative stress. C-PC exhibits no toxicity to normal cells. Therefore, as a potential marine active substance for liver protection, C-PC has a broad application prospect. In this paper, the research progresses of the protective effect and mechanism of C-PC on different kinds of liver injury in recent years.

Key words: CYANOPHYTA, liver diseases, chemical and drug induced liver injury, reperfusion injury, liver neoplasms, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, C-phycocyanin