A Study On The Hepatocarcinogenesis Of Hypersplenism With Portal Hypertension In Rats

Background and objective:Hepatocellular carcinoma is an important disease worldwide, The vast majority of patients have pre-existing cirrhosis at the time they develop HCC. Liver cirrhosis would lead to increasing of portal pressure and a series of other organ's dysfunction. Hypersplenism secondary to liver cirrhosis usually caused by portal hypertension. The current study of hypersplenism mainly focused on the pathological spleen should be retained or should be removed. Through the retrospective study that patients with portal hypertension, Splenectomy can promote liver regeneration and slow the progress of cirrhosis of the liver, thus reducing the risk of hepatocarcinogenesis, but there is still a lack of prospective studies to confirm this view . The mainly aim of this study is to establish a rat model by surgical method of portal hypertension with hypersplenism, based on this model, chemical-induced liver cancer incidence in rats was observed. The objective of this study was to provide the evidence for the treatment of patient with liver cirrhosis in clinical. Methods:Firstly, to establish a model of portal hypertension with hypersplenism in SD rats by portal vein stenosis combined with splenic vein ligation. Secondly, to induce the HCC of the rats by Diethylnitrosamine, and to observe in the process of carcinogenesis and the different degree of liver fibrosis in different groups.Results:1. The animals in the group with the operation of portal vein was stenosis combined with splenic vein ligation, the erythrocyte and platelet counts were significantly reduced in the experiment from the third to the eighth week(P<0.05),and the dimension of spleen and spleen index were increased significantly(P<0.05)at the end of the experiment as compared with the other two groups. The counts of leukocyte in both the three groups have no significant variation during the experiment. The portal vein pressure increased significantly at the eighth week in both group with portal vein stenosis and group with combined operation than in group with shame operation(P<0.05).The splenic histopathology changes conformed to the typical pathological changes of hypersplenism in the group with combined operation.2. The degree of liver cirrhosis of the animals in the group with hypersplenism was more serious than the animals in the other two groups, and the incidence of HCC was higher than the other two groups(P<0.05). The number of blood platelets and erythrocyte was increased after the splenectomy, but the incidence of HCC has no significant statistical difference with the other two groups. Conclusion:1. Portal vein stenosis combined with splenic vein ligation can induce experimental secondary hypersplenism successfully. The method of operation is simple, and the animal model is reliable, so that it will be useful in the scientific research.2. Hypersplenism has accelerated the process of liver fibrosis, increasing the risk of HCC. The role of the splenectomy on the progress of liver cirrhosis and hepatocarcinogenesis remains to be demonstrated.