Expression and significance of visfatin in the livers of rats suffering from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Abstract

Objective To investigate the expression of visfatin in the livers of rats suffering from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and to expect the development of new diagnosis and treatment for NAFLD.Methods A total of 40 Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats was randomly divided into control and NAFLD model groups.For control group,the rats were given basic diet and subcutaneous injection of saline(0.2 ml/100 g weight)twice a week.However,rats in the model group were given high fat diet and were given subcutaneous injection of 40 ％ carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) salad oil (0.2 ml/100 g) twice a week.The levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT),aspartate aminotransferase (AST),triglyeride (TG),total-cholesterol (TC) in serum together with the visfatin expression in hepatic tissue were analyzed at the 2nd,4th,6th,and 8th weeks after operation,respectively.Results The levels of ALT,AST,TG,and TC in model group were increased gradually as time going(P ＜ 0.05).Immunohistochemistry and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) experiments showed the level of visfatin in model group was significantly higher than control group in each period,with a increasing trends with the modeling time (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions (1)After high-fat feeding and intraperitoneal injection of CCL4,a model of adult SD rats suffering from NAFLD was constructed.(2)In livers of rats suffering from NAFLD,the expression of visfatin was increased while the level of liver steatosis was enhanced.Visfatin would be a new target to observe the severity of NAFLD. Key words: Nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase; Fatty liver; Rats, Sprague-Dawley