Effects of glycine on liver regeneration after rat size-reduced liver transplantation

Abstract

Objective To assess the effect of glycine on survival rate,liver damage and regeneration after rat size-reduced liver transplantation (50%).Methods Female Sprague-Dawley rats (weighing 200-230 g) received glycine ( 1.5 ml,30 mmol/L) infusion before transplantation.Controls were given Ringer' s solution ( 1.5 ml).Size-reduced liver transplantation ( 50% ) was performed after 2 h of cold storage.Animal survival,serum transaminases,liver histology,and liver regeneration were then investigated.Results After size-reduced liver transplantation (50%),glycine significantly improved the survival rate as compared with controls.8 h after transplantation,the serum levels of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) ,alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH)in control group were increased to (4045.4 ± 614.5 ),( 1972.3 ± 338.2 ),( 13 079.8 ± 2608.4) U/L respectively.Those in glycine group were reduced by 40% to 50% of control group (P ＜ 0.05 ).The significant protective effects of glycine were also confirmed by the results of histology (P ＜0.05 ).8 and 24 h after operation,there was no significant difference in hepatic regeneration rate and expression of Ki-67 between control and glycine groups.Conclusion These data suggest that glycine improves the survival and minimizes reperfusion injury,but doesn' t block the regeneration after size-reduced liver transplantation in vivo. Key words: Live transplantation; Live injury; Regeneration; Glycine