Empirical study on effect of emodin on acute rejection after orthotopic liver transplantation in rats.

Objective:To evaluate the effect of emodin on acute rejection after orthotopic liver transplantation(OLT) in rats.Methods:The LEW→BN OLT models were established.A total of 45 rats were divided randomly and equally into 3 groups:group A was treated with normal saline at dose of 0.5 ml/d intraperitoneally from 1st day to 8th day after operation;Group B,CsA at dose of 10.0 mg·kg-1·d-1;Group C,emodin at dose of 50.0 mg·kg-1·d-1.8 days after operation,6 recipients of each groups were killed for confirming rejection-active index(RAI) and hepatocellular apoptosis index(AI) by observing the pathologic change of transplanted liver in recipients.The other recipients were raised for observing the survival time.Results:Respectively,the survival time(days) of group A,B,C was 9.50±1.64,21.57±2.15,21.29±2.21.The survival time of group B,C was significantly longer than that of group A(P0.01) and there was no significant distinction between group B and C in survival time(P0.05).Respectively,the RAI of group A,B,C was 7.67±0.9,5.17±0.40,5.83±0.75 and the AI of group A,B,C was 35.83±2.32,15.83±1.33,16.50±2.35.The RAI and AI of group B,C was significantly lower than that of group A(P0.01) and there was no significant distinction between group B and C in RAI and AI(P0.05).Conclusion:Emodin can reduce the hepatocellular apoptosis and suppress the acute rejection after OLT in rats.