The assessment of liver quality of brain death rabbits

Abstract

Objective To establish the rabbit brain death model,observe the change of liver function and morphology in the brain death rabbits,and evaluate the possibility of transplantation surgery carried out with brain death donor liver.Methods 40 healthy New Zealand rabbits were randomly divided into sham group (n=20) and brain death group (n=20),and each group was further divided into four subgroups according to 2,4,6 and 8 h after brain death.At the end of the experiment,the blood samples and liver tissues were collected.The level of alanine transaminase (ALT),aspartate transaminase (AST) and the apoptosis of liver cells were determined by automatic biochemistry analyzer and TUNEL method respectively.The morphology changes of liver were detected by HE staining,and the levels of interleukin (IL)-1β,IL-6,IL-8,tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α were detected by competitive inhibition ELISA.Results In 2,4,6 and 8 h group,the level of ALT and AST increased,especially in 8 h group,which were significantly different from 6 h group's.Under light microscope,there was no significant change in liver 2 and 4 h after brain death.However,in 8 h after brain death,liver cells degenerated significantly,liver cord structure disappeared,some liver cells necrosis,which was consistent with the results of apoptosis index.The levels of IL-1β,IL-6,IL-8,TNF-α were obviously increased in a time dependent manner compared with sham group.Conclusions Brain death could lead to the damage of liver function and morphology and this injury aggravated with time,which might be relevant with the production of inflammatory mediators.8 h after brain death,there were obvious change in the liver function and morphology. Key words: Brain death; Inflammatory factor; Apoptosis; Rabbit