Establishing rat model of associating liver partition with portal vein ligation for staged hepatectomy (ALPPS) / 中华肝胆外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To establish a rat model of associating liver partition with portal vein ligation for staged hepatectomy (ALPPS) and evaluate the liver function after surgery.Methods Fifty male SD rats were randomly divided into two groups experimental group (ALPPS group) and control group (PVL group).Selective portal vein ligation in PVL group was performed on the caudal lobe, left lateral and left median lobes, while the right lobe, the right median lobe was preserved to regenerate.ALLPS group was treated in the same way as PVL group, but also underwent liver partition in situ.After surgery, 5 rats were sacrificed on day 1, 3,7, 10 and 14 in each group to observe the weight of body and the right median lobe,respectively.The venous blood and liver tissue were obtained for testing alanine aminotransferase (ALT),aspartate aminotransferase (AST), serum albumin (ALB), total bilirubin (TBil) and observing the histological changes in liver injury after surgery.Results After surgery, the body weight decreased progressively, but then increased in both groups.Since the first day after surgery, the body weight began to decrease,reached the lowest value on 3 d, and then on day 7 the body weight in PVL group returned to preoperative levels.However, the body weight was still lower than that before surgery [(3.7 ± 2.7) ％ vs (-3.0 ± 1.9)％, P＜0.05].On day 3, 7, 10 and 14, the hepatic regeneration rate (HRR) of the fight median lobe in ALPPS group was obviously higher than that in PVL group (P ＜ 0.05).On day 1, the serum ALT and AST levels in two groups were elevated dramatically and then gradually decreased, which in ALPPS group were significantly higher than those in PVL group (P ＜ 0.05).There were no significant differences at other time points.On day 1 and 3, the serum ALB in ALPPS group was obviously lower than that in PVL group [(25.4±1.7)g/Lvs (31.4±1.5)g/L, P＜0.05;(25.0±2.0)g/Lvs (31.8±1.5)g/L, P＜ 0.05], respectively.More focal necrosis of liver were observed in ALPPS group on day 1, which were more than those in PVL group.Conclusions This method could successfully establish a ALPPS rat model and proved that ALPPS could induce accelerated hepatic regeneration and more severe early hepatocyte injury compared with PVL.This ALPPS experimental model provides a basis for further research on ALPPS, especially for clarifying the mechanisms of liver regeneration and tumor recurrence, and exploring the reasons for various ALPPS related complications, which play a significant role in its clinical application.