The Effect Of Dexamethasone On Two Cytokines Expression During Liver Regeneration In Rats

In this paper, male Sprague-Dawely rats were treated with dexamethasone as an inducer, implementedPartial hepatectomy (PH) to make the model. Regenerating livers and serum were used as material, tissuechanges of regenerating livers were studied by HE staining, the expression changes of TGF-α and TGF-β₁in cytoplasm were studied by immunohistochemical staining, and the content changes of Ca²⁺,TGF-α andTGF-β+1in serum were studied by ELISA, in order to provide experimental information for exploring therelationship of them during the liver regeneration.Rats were randomly divided into four groups:(1) control group;(2) group treated with0.125mg/kgbody weight dexamethasone;(3) group treated with0.25mg/kg body weight dexamethasone;(4)grouptreated with0.5mg/kg body weight dexamethasone. Different doses of dexamethasone blended in50%ethanol were injected intraperitoneal to rats every24h, beginning24h before PH, the control group wasinjected with50%ethanol,200μl of each injection.The result of liver/body weight ratio and HE staining showed that the rate of cell proliferationsignificantly reduced during liver regeneration in rats treated with Dexamethasone. The analysis of timeand space of the two cytokines during liver regeneration by immunohistochemistry and ELISA, showedthat treated with Dexamethasone could inhibit TGF-α expression, enhance TGF-β₁expression and reducethe level of Ca²⁺in serum. The effect strengthen as the dose of dexamethasone increased. It suggested thattreated with Dexamethasone could inhibit the process of liver regeneration in rats. In addition, the analysisof experiment results showed when the expression of TGF-β₁increased, the expression of TGF-α and thelevels of Ca²⁺in serum reduced accordingly, taking on a certain degree of correlation. These effects weremostly manifested in the mid-liver regeneration (PH12⁴8h).