Effects Of Southern Gekko On The Diethylnitrosamine-induced Hepatic Precancerous Lesions In Rat

OBJECTIVE: Solt-Farber model of DEN-induced precancerous lesions in rat liver was applied. Different doses of Southern Gekko were given to the animals in each treated groups during the process of animal experiment. The effects of Southern Gekko (a traditional Chinese medicine) in the diethylnitrosamine (DEN)–induced precancerous lesions in rat liver were explored.Methods: The male rats, 6 weeks old, with weight (115±10) g , were divided into A,B,C,D,E five groups at random. There are 20 animals in every group except for E group, which has 18 animals. A,B,C group was treated with high(1.8 g/kg),middle(0.9 g/kg),low(0.45 g/kg)doses of Southern Gekko respectively; Group D was DEN positive control group; E group was blank control. The rats of A, B, C and D group were received DEN by abdomen injection. Then 2-AAF solution which was mixed into the normal food was administered to the experimental rats for two weeks. Two-thirds partial hepatectomy was performed after seven days for taking 2-AAF to promote tumor process. 2-AAF solution food was stoped at the seventh week then feeding the normal food for two days. All animals were prohibited to take the food for 24 hours and later they were executed. Five pieces of liver were taken from each rat. The preneoplastic nodules forγ-GT positive foci in liver sections were measured, and the total areas of the positive foci per square centimeter (mm2/cm2), the average acreage per positive foci (mm2/entries), and the amount of positive foci per square centimeter (entries/cm2)were calculated respectively. The streptavidin peraxidase (SP) immunohistochemical assay for detecting the protein expressions of EFGR, ErbB4, ki-67 in liver tissues were performed respectively. The expression of EFGR, ErbB4, ki-67 protein was determined and compared withγ-GT positive foci.Results: The total areas andγ-GT foci of experimental groups were smaller or less than those of the DEN control group, and group C showed a significant differences in statistics (P < 0. 05). The immunohistoche- mical assay revealed that ki-67, EGFR and ErbB4 were expressed in each group. The positive and strong positive expression rate (20%)of ki67 in the low-dose group was significantly lower than that in the positive contr- ol group (73.3%; P < 0. 05);The positive and strong positive expression rates of EGFR in high and low dose groups were 22.2% and 10.0% respe- ctively. They were significantly lower than that in the positive control...