Role of Cyclooxygenase-2 in Liver Injury Induced by Severe Acute Pancreatitis

Objective To investigate the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in liver tissue of severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) rats.Methods A rat model of SAP was induced by retrograde infusion of 3.5% sodium taurocholate into the biliary-pancreatic duct.Eighty rats were randomly divided into SAP group and control group.The levels of serum amylase (AMY),alanine aminotransferase (ALT),aspartate aminotransferase (AST),tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and ascites AMY were detected dynamically at 4 h,8 h,16 h and 24 h after operation.The pancreatic and liver injuries were observed by light microscope.The expression of COX-2 in liver tissue was measured by immunohistochemistry.Results Compared with the control group,the levels of serum AMY,ALT,AST,TNF-α and ascites AMY increased significantly at the time point of 4 h,8 h,16 h and 24 h (P0.05).These changes were paralleled with the histopathological changes of pancreatic and liver tissue.The expression positive rates of COX-2 at the different time in the SAP group were higer than those of the control group (P0.05).There was a significantly positive correlation between the expression of COX-2 and ALT (rs=0.949,P=0.039),AST (rs=0.972,P=0.016) and serum AMY (rs=0.944,P=0.041),respectively.Conclusion Overexpression of COX-2 may play an important role in liver injury during SAP.