Objective: To establish a staging standard for a transplanted hepatoma model in rats, which may be equivalent to the human primary liver cancer.
Methods: A transplanted hepatoma model was made in SD rats by implantation of histologically intact Walker-256 tumor fragment into the left lateral lobe of the liver. The body weight, tumor volume and serum albumin level of the rats were measured and assayed in different periods. Pathological sections were also fabricated to detect the invasion and metastasis of the neighboring tissues.
Results: The body weight loss and ascites occurred at the 12th and 18th day separately. The serum albumin level was (35.32+/-2.45) g/L at the 11th day, which showed no statistical difference as compared with the healthy rats (P>0.05), and the albumin level at the 18th day was significantly lower than that at the 11th day (P<0.05). At the 23rd day, 56.25% of the rats developed bloody ascites.
Conclusion: The period between 5-11 days in the model rats may be correspondent to the early stage of human primary liver cancer, and the biological behavior of the model rats at the18th day may be correspondent to the late stage of human primary liver cancer. This staging standard might be the guideline for model selection in experimental study of primary liver cancer.