Abstract
The animals used in liver fibrosis studies must usually be sacrificed. Ultrasound has been demonstrated to have the ability to diagnose hepatic fibrosis and cirrhosis in experimental small-animal models. However, few studies have used high-frequency ultrasound (HFU, 40 MHz) to monitor changes in the rat liver and other hollow organs longitudinally. In this study, liver fibrosis was induced by administering dimethylnitrosamine (DMN) in SD rats, aged 8 weeks, for three consecutive days per week for up to 4 weeks. A Chinese herbal medicine Yi Guan Jian (YGJ) was orally administered (1.8 g/kg daily) to DMN-induced liver fibrosis rats for 2 weeks. Compared with the normal control rats, rats treated with DMN for either 2 weeks or 4 weeks had significantly lower body weights, liver indexes and elevation of hydroxyproline, GOT, and GPT contents. YGJ herbal treatment remarkably prevented rats from DMN-induced liver fibrosis. The HFU scoring results among the normal controls, 2-week DMN-treated rats, 4-week DMN-treated rats, and combined 2-week YGJ therapy with 4-week DMN-treated rats also reached statistical significance. Thus, HFU is an accurate tool for the longitudinal analysis of liver fibrosis progression in small-animal models, and the YGJ may be useful in reversing the development of hepatic fibrosis.
Highlights
Hepatic fibrosis has been reported to be a response to necrosis and inflammation caused by various factors such as infection, intoxication, and detrimental factors
Hepatic fibrosis leads to the activation of Kupffer cells, mononuclear cells, and hepatic stellate cells, resulting in the degeneration of the hepatic cords
We demonstrated that high-frequency ultrasound (HFU, 40 MHz) imaging is a useful tool for the in vivo analysis of liver tissue during chronic toxin exposure and the induction of liver fibrosis in rats
Summary
Hepatic fibrosis has been reported to be a response to necrosis and inflammation caused by various factors such as infection, intoxication, and detrimental factors. The persistence of the insult disrupts the normal hepatic architecture, leading to the development of regenerative nodules and vascular dysfunction, which are used to determine the cirrhosis stage [1, 2]. Liver biopsy is the major tool for diagnosing hepatic fibrosis or cirrhosis and assessing the severity of an injured liver. This procedure has several drawbacks, including its invasiveness, the likelihood of sampling errors, and the potential for medical complications. Ultrasound has been demonstrated to have the ability to diagnose hepatic fibrosis and cirrhosis in experimental smallanimal models [3,4,5,6]. Highfrequency ultrasound (HFU) imaging, a recent developed
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