| Hepatic fibrosis, a common pathological process of chronic hepatic disease resulted from different etiological factors, leads to cirrhosis. Hyperplasia and abnormal deposition of extracellular matrix are the main pathogenesis. It was well known that once chronic hepatic disease developed into cirrhosis or even ascites, most treatment became ineffective. Further more, there is no special medicine for it. Thus it became problem of today. From the point of traditional Chinese medicine, pathogenesis of this disease is vital energy undermined, while pathogenic factors are prevailing, dampness and heat, stasis of blood, liver stagnancy, deficiency in Qi of spleen and kidney. Good effect has been achieved in prevention and treatment of hepatic fibrosis using Chinese herbs. The drugs used in this study include dan-shen root, zedoary, Chinese angelica and terrapin armour etc. The main chemical components are glucose, sucrose, fructose, dan-shen root keton, volatile oil, phenol, virgate wormwood herb keton, organic acid, vitamine E and vitamine Bi2 etc. They can activate the blood circulation to eliminate blood stasis, eliminate inflammation and swelling, remove dampness through diuresis and increase immune functions.In addition, some research indicated that there were significant decrease of selenium in hair and serum of the hepatic fibrosis patients, which showed intimate relations between the lack of selenium and hepatic fibrosis. Selenium, the necessary microelement for the body, has significant effect on relieving degeneration of liver cells and hyperplasia. Selenium is also involved in immune response and affects metabolism of other microelement in body. Chinese herbs and selenium were used in this studyto prevent hepatic fibrosis of rats.Cytokines were found in the research of infectious disease in 1950's. The earliest cytokine reported was MIF and IFN. Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a kind of protein that has different biological roles. It has been showed that HGF was the strongest stimulator for growth and synthesis of DNA of liver cells. HGF in circulation of patient with liver cutting off and different liver diseases increased significantly and HGF mRNA expression was observed in liver tissue. It was demonstrated that positive expression of HGF mRNA was highest at the early phase of liver cirrhosis. In addition, deformation and necrosis of liver cells, severe injury of liver cells and high expression of HGF mRNA were observed in hepatic fibrosis, which indicated that mass production of HGF could promote regeneration and repair of liver. Many cytokines were non-specifically involved in regulation of liver regeneration, while a kind of heat-steady hepatic cell growth stimulating factor could specifically stimulate the growth of liver cells, which was called hepatic stimulator substance( HSS). The HSS was extracted from liver tissue of rats, pigs, new-born calf and embryo of human. Zhang et al applied promote hepatocyte growth factor (pHGF) extracted from pig into clinical severe viral hepatitis and good curative effect was obtained. Hagira et al cloned a kind of stimulating factor with the effect of HSS, which was called augmenter of liver regeneration (ALR).The prevention and treatment effect of Chinese herbs and selenium to hepatic fibrosis was investigated on molecular levels. The pathogenesis of liver fibrosis, the liver function and liver fibrosis parameters were observed. Expression of HGF and ALR mRNA was detected by RT-PCR. The aim of the study is to supply reference for clinical use of selenium, investigate the mechanism of prevention and treatment effect of Chinese herbs and selenium, and provide theory evidence for clinical screen of Chinese herbs containing selenium and for treatment of hepatic fibrosis with Chinese herbs plus selenium. 1 Preventive effect of Chinese herbs and selenium on chronic hepaticfibrosis rats and its mechanismsIn order to investigate preventive effect and the effect mechanism of Chinese herbs and selenium, the experiment was performed using SD rats...
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