Portal vein embolization and ligation induced liver regeneration in rats with hepatic fibrosis / 中华肝胆外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the portal vein embolization (PVE) and portal vein ligation (PVL) in liver regeneration of rats with hepatic fibrosis.Methods Fifty rats with liver fibrosis were prepared,including 10 rats were randomly chosen as pre-operative control group.The other 40 rats were divided into two groupsPVE group (A1,n =20) and PVL group (A2,n =20).We chose to embolize and ligate the right portal vein,respectively.The blood samples were obtained at different end points for measuring ALT and AST levels.Each liver lobes and whole liver were weighed,and non-embolized liver lobe/whole liver weight ratio,non-ligated liver lobe/whole liver weight were caculated at different end points.The samples from liver with/without embolization or ligation were were stained with hematoxylin-eosin,and the changes of microstructure of liver were observed.Immunostained for PCNA and Ki-67 were performed.Results Transient elevation of postoperative ALT and AST levels were noted in each group.Serum ALT and AST reached the peak on the first day in both of PVE and PVL groups [ALT,A1 (66.5 ±6.3) U/L vs(491.5 ± 48.0) U/L,A2 group(62.8 ±5.7) U/L vs(433.7 ±41.0) U/L;AST,A1group (113.4 ± 12.5) U/L vs (685.2 ±65.7) U/L,A2 group (110.4 ± 11.1) U/L vs(623.9 ±75.2) U/L,P＜0.05),and started to decrease on the third day,recovered to the pre-operative level on the fourteenth day (P ＞ 0.05).The weight percentage of non-embolized and non-ligated liver lobes/whole liver after PVE and PVL increased.There was no significant difference between the first day and pre-operative levels (P ＞ 0.05).Nevertheless,there were significant differences observed from the third,seventh,fourteenth days (A1 group,50.2 ± 5.0,57.7 ±5.7,61.8 ±6.6;A2group,49.6 ±3.5,55.7 ±6.9,63.0±5.1,respectively)compared with preoperative groups (A1 group,34.4 ± 4.0;A2 group,34.4 ± 4.0) (P ＜ 0.05).There was no significant difference between group A1 and A2 in each time point (P ＞0.05).The PCNA and Ki-67 were positive in hepatocytes and increased after operation,reached the peak in the third day (P ＜ 0.05),decreased slowly and restored to the normal level in the fourteenth day after operation,meanwhile,there was no significant difference between group A1 and A2 (P ＞ 0.05).Conclusions Fibrosis rats had the ability of regeneration in the contralateral part of the liver after selective PVE and PVL and there was no significant difference on the proliferative degree.Therefore,the safety and reliability of PVE and PVL in inducing liver regeneration in rats with liver fibrosis were confirmed.