Original Article
Copyright ©2012 Baishideng Publishing Group Co., Limited. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Mar 7, 2012; 18(9): 905-914
Published online Mar 7, 2012. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v18.i9.905
Low-dose steroid pretreatment ameliorates the transient impairment of liver regeneration
Toshihito Shibata, Toru Mizuguchi, Yukio Nakamura, Masaki Kawamoto, Makoto Meguro, Shigenori Ota, Koichi Hirata, Hidekazu Ooe, Toshihiro Mitaka
Toshihito Shibata, Toru Mizuguchi, Yukio Nakamura, Masaki Kawamoto, Makoto Meguro, Shigenori Ota, Koichi Hirata, Department of Surgery I, Sapporo Medical University Hospital, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-8543, Japan
Hidekazu Ooe, Toshihiro Mitaka, Department of Tissue Development and Regeneration, Molecular Pathophysiology, Frontier Medical Research Institute, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-8556, Japan
Author contributions: Mizuguchi T, Mitaka T and Hirata K designed the research; Shibata T, Nakamura Y and Ooe H performed the research; Kawamoto M, Ota S and Meguro M analyzed the data; Shibata T and Mizuguchi T wrote the paper.
Supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, No. 23791489 (to Nakamura Y), No. 23591993 (to Mizuguchi T), No. 21390365 (to Mitaka T) and No. 22390259 (Hirata K); a grant from Yuasa memorial foundation (to Mizuguchi T)
Correspondence to: Toru Mizuguchi, MD, PhD, Department of Surgery I, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, S-1, W-16, Chuo-Ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-8543, Japan. tmizu@sapmed.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-11-6112111 Fax: +81-11-6131678
Received: July 4, 2011
Revised: September 16, 2011
Accepted: January 18, 2012
Published online: March 7, 2012
Abstract

AIM: To determine if liver regeneration (LR) could be disturbed following radiofrequency (RF) ablation and whether modification of LR by steroid administration occurs.

METHODS: Sham operation, partial hepatectomy (PH), and partial hepatectomy with radiofrequency ablation (PHA) were performed on adult Fisher 344 rats. We investigated the recovery of liver volume, DNA synthetic activities, serum cytokine/chemokine levels and signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 DNA-binding activities in the nucleus after the operations. Additionally, the effects of steroid (dexamethasone) pretreatment in the PH group (S-PH) and the PHA group (S-PHA) were compared.

RESULTS: The LR after PHA was impaired, with high serum cytokine/chemokine induction compared to PH, although the ratio of the residual liver weight to body weight was not significantly different. Steroid pretreatment disturbed LR in the S-PH group. On the other hand, low-dose steroid pretreatment improved LR and suppressed tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α elevation in the S-PHA group, with recovery of STAT3 DNA-binding activity. On the other hand, low-dose steroid pretreatment improved LR and suppressed TNF-α elevation in the S-PHA group, with recovery of STAT3 DNA-binding activity.

CONCLUSION: LR is disturbed after RF ablation, with high serum cytokine/chemokine induction. Low-dose steroid administration can improve LR after RF ablation with TNF-α suppression.

Keywords: Liver regeneration; Radiofrequency ablation; Steroid; Tumor necrosis factor; Hepatectomy