Background: Oxidative stress has been reported as a key pathogenic factor in many human liver diseases and in experimental models of cirrhosis related to hepatotoxin administration. The aim of this study was to verify the hypothesis that prehepatic portal hypertension aggravates the enterohepatic redox imbalance in thioacetamide-cirrhotic rats.
Materials and methods: Wistar male rats were used: Control (n=9); rats with prehepatic portal hypertension by triple partial portal vein ligation (TPVL; n=9); thioacetamide-cirrhotic rats (TAA; n=9) and TPVL-rats associated to TAA administration (TPVL+TAA; n=9). Three months after the operation, portal pressure (PP), mesenteric venous vasculopathy (MVV) and portosystemic collateral circulation were studied. Liver and ileal levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), as a lipid peroxidation marker, and catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), glutathione transferase (GSH-t) and cytosolic and mitochondrial superoxide dismutases (cSOD and mSOD), as antioxidative enzymatic mechanisms, were measured.
Results: Liver and ileal MDA increased in all the experimental groups, although the higher increase occurred in the ileum of rats with portal hypertension. CAT levels decreased in the liver and the ileum in the three experimental groups. The decrease in liver and ileal GSH-Px and GSH-t was greater in rats with portal hypertension, alone or associated with TAA. mSOD activation was demonstrated in the liver when portal hypertension was added to TAA. On the contrary, this compensatory response was not activated in the ileum, where mSOD was significantly decreased.
Conclusion: Prehepatic portal hypertension by triple partial portal vein ligation impaired the enterohepatic antioxidative activity and aggravated the intestinal oxidative stress in thioacetamide-cirrhotic rats.