Table 1.
Serum ALT and AST, and hepatic CYP2E1, MDA and GSH in hepatotoxicity experiment*.
Figure 1.
Serum levels of H2S, H2S production and CSE expression in CCl4-induced acute hepatotoxicity.
Healthy rats, or CCl4-treated rats receiving administrations of saline, NaHS or PAG, were killed 48 h after CCl4 administration, blood and liver samples were collected. The levels of H2S in sera (A) and H2S producing activity in livers (B) were measured. (C-F) The expression of CSE mRNA (C, D) and protein (E, F) was detected in liver tissues from healthy rats (lane 1), or CCl4-treaed rats receiving administration of saline (lane 2), NaHS (lane 3) or PAG (lane 4), by RT-PCR (C, D) or Western blot analysis (E, F), respectively. M, DNA marker. (D) The density of each band from (C) was measured and compared to that of the internal control, GAPDH. (F) The density of each band from (E) was measured and compared to that of the internal control, β-actin. Results are expressed as mean ± SD (n = 6). Compared to the healthy controls, a significant difference is denoted by “*” , and a highly significant difference by “**” (P<0.001). Compared to rats treated with CCl4 + saline, a significant increase is denoted by “‡”, and a significant reduction is denoted by “#”.
Figure 2.
Serum H2S levels, H2S production, and expression of CSE and α-SMA in the prevention experiment.
The rats were treated with CCl4 + saline, CCl4 + NaHS or CCl4 + PAG for 12 weeks. Untreated rats served as healthy controls. (A) Blood samples were collected at indicated time points, and the serum levels of H2S were measured. The statistical comparison between two groups was done at the respective time point. (B-E) The rats were killed at the completion of experiment. Blood samples were collected from portal vein, and livers harvested. The levels of H2S in sera from the portal vein (B), and H2S producing activity in livers (C) were measured. (D) The expression of CSE and α-SMA was detected in livers from healthy controls (lane 1), or rats treated saline+CCl4 (lane 2), NaHS+CCl4 (lane 3) or PAG+CCl4 (lane 4) by Western blot analysis. (E) The density of each band was measured and compared to that of the internal control, β-actin. Results are expressed as mean ± SD. n, number of samples. Compared to the healthy controls, a significant difference is denoted by “*”, a highly significant difference by “**” (P<0.001). Compared to saline + CCl4-treated rats, a significant increase is denoted by “‡”, and a significant reduction is denoted by “#”.
Table 2.
Serum biochemicals and inflammatory factors in cirrhotic rats*.
Figure 3.
Histology of liver cirrhosis, hepatic hydroxyproline, spleen weight and portal pressure in the prevention experiment.
Representative illustrations (200 × magnification) of Masson-stained liver sections were taken from healthy controls (A), or rats treated with CCl4 + saline (B), CCl4 + NaHS (C) or CCl4 + PAG (D), for 12 weeks. (E) The numbers of blue pixels of each image of the above Masson-stained liver sections were counted, and the average number of blue pixels for each liver was calculated. (F) The level of hydroxyproline in livers taken from the above rats was measured. (G) Each spleen was weighed as % of bodyweight. (H) The portal pressure of each was measured. Data were expressed mean ± SD. n, number of samples. Compared to the healthy controls, a significant difference is denoted by “*”, and a highly significant difference, by “**” (P<0.001). Compared to saline + CCl4-treated rats, a significant increase is denoted by “‡”, and a significant reduction is denoted by “#”.
Figure 4.
H2S levels and production, hepatic hydroxyproline, portal pressure and spleen weight in the treatment experiment.
Liver cirrhosis was induced in rats as in Figure 3, and then the rats were assigned to three groups (Each group had 6 rats), and received daily injection of saline, NaHS or PAG, respectively, for 5 days, and then killed. (A) Blood samples were collected and the serum levels of H2S were measured. (B) Blood samples were collected from portal vein to measure the levels of H2S in portal vein (B). The hepatic H2S producing activity (C) and hydroxyproline contents (D) were measured. The portal pressure was measured (E), and each spleen was weighed as % of bodyweight (F). Results are expressed as mean ± SD. A significant increase from saline-treated rats is denoted by “‡”, and a significant reduction by “#”.