Objective: To explore the effects of compound nutrients on liver rehabilitation and regeneration in rats with CCl4;-induced liver cirrhosis.
Methods: The rat cirrhotic models were prepared by injecting intraperitoneally the mixture of CCl4; (40%) and oil (60%) by 2 mL/kg body weight twice a week for 12 weeks. The nutrition treatment group was treated with compound nutrients and the spontaneous recovery group was not treated with nutrients after stopping CCl4; injection. Then liver tissues and blood samples were harvested to detect the expressions of augmenter of liver regeneration (ALR) and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) by immunohistochemistry, the level of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) by ELISA, the levels of albumin (ALB), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), total bilirubin (TBIL), glucose, triglyceride (TG) and cholesterol (CHOL) by automatic biochemical analyzer, and the levels of amino acids in blood plasma by mass spectrometry.
Results: The expressions of ALR and PCNA were higher in nutrition treatment group than in spontaneous recovery group. The level of HGF in serum was higher in nutrition treatment group than in spontaneous recovery group (98.92 ± 2.42 vs 60.99 ± 27.63, t = 3.349, P = 0.020). The levels of ALT (60.18 ± 6.39 vs 84.6 ± 17.91, t = 3.146, P = 0.019) and TBIL (2.08 ± 0.46 vs 6.97 ± 2.58, t = 4.56, P = 0.001) were lower in nutrition treatment group than in spontaneous recovery group. The level of ALB was higher in nutrition treatment group than in spontaneous recovery group (33.15 ± 1.36 vs 24.62 ± 2.48, t = 7.39, P=0.000). The level of branched chain amino acids (BCAA) in blood plasma was higher in nutrition treatment group than in spontaneous recovery group (381.53 ± 35.86 vs 283.05 ± 79.14, t = 2.78, P = 0.02).
Conclusion: Compound nutrients can be good for liver rehabilitation and regeneration in CCl4;-induced cirrhotic rat model, and the liver regeneration may relate to high BCAA level in blood plasma.