Abstract:Objective: To study the effect of ischemia and reperfusion injury to hepatocarcinoma and normal liver tissues.
Methods:The hepatocarcinoma animal models were established by the ultrasonography-guided implantation of VX2 tumor tissue suspension into the left-middle lobe of liver of rabbits. Two weeks later, the established hepotocarcinoma animal modal and the control group animal were subjected to 60 minutes clamp of the left-middle lobe artery branch followed by reperfusion at 0 min, 1 h, 1 d, 3 d and 7 d respectively. Apoptotic changes in the hepatocarcinoma and normal hepatic tissues were observed by means of HE staining and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end-labeling (TUNEL).
Results:The result of HE staining indicated that the number of apoptotic cells in hepatocarcinoma and normal liver tissues increased to the highest point 1 d following reperfusion（23%,10%）, but even though the positive cell count decreased to a certain extent until 7 d after reperfusion, it was still more obvious than that before the reperfusion. The positive apoptosis ratio of hepatocarcinoma tissue retained a higher level than that of normal liver tissues at all time points. The result of TUNEL showed that the number of the apoptotic cells in hepatocarcinoma tissues(5%) was larger than that of normal liver tissues before ischemia(1%). The apoptotic characteristics of hepatocarcinoma and normal liver tissues after reperfusion were similar to those of HE staining and their apoptotic ratio was 25%, 15% and 8%, 2% after reperfusion for 1 d and 7 d respectively.
Conclusions:Ischemia and reperfusion can cause more intense injury and apoptosis in hepatocarcinoma tissue than in normal hepatic tissues.