Long-term consumption of hydrogen-rich water provides hepatoprotection by improving mitochondrial biology and quality control in chronically stressed mice
He Q et al. · PLoS One. 2025;20(2):e0317080.
What kind of evidence is this?
Preclinical
Randomized three-group chronic-stress mouse experiment
Liver health
H₂-rich water
Not reported in this record.
Not reported in this record.
Methods at a glance
Male and female Kunming mice exposed to chronic unpredictable mild stress
48 mice: H₂-water n=16, stress-model n=16 and control n=16; each group included 8 males and 8 females
Seven months of H₂-water exposure followed by chronic-stress modeling under the reported protocol
Daily freshly prepared hydrogen-rich drinking water
H₂ dissolved in drinking water — H₂ only, not Brown’s gas and not inhalation.
Numeric dissolved-H₂ concentration was not identified in the extracted full-text methods.
Not applicable — oral water, not gas inhalation.
No O₂ was co-delivered as part of the intervention.
Chronically stressed and non-stressed mice receiving distilled water
Outcomes and reported result
Liver histology, AST, ALT, oxidative stress, ferroptosis, apoptosis, mitochondrial biology and behavior
The article reports improved liver histology and enzyme, redox, ferroptosis, apoptosis and mitochondrial measures in chronically stressed mice receiving H₂ water.
Animal allocation, main methods and principal outcomes checked in the open-access full text; numeric H₂ concentration remains to be confirmed.
A reported association, difference or mechanism is not automatically a clinical benefit. Null findings, outcome type, study design and precision all matter.
Cautions and applicability
Long preclinical exposure, many biochemical outcomes, sex-balanced but not clearly powered for sex-specific effects, and no human participants.
Chronically stressed mice, not patients with liver disease.
Not reported in this record.
Not reported in this record.
Not reported in this record.
No single-study GRADE certainty rating is assigned. Certainty is assessed by important outcome across a complete eligible evidence set, not by attaching a final grade to one source.
Sources and record status
PMID: 39951412 · DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0317080
Open-access full text is available through PMC.
Open-access PMC full text and PubMed record.
2026-08-10