Impacts of Ruangan Huajian Granules on the Hepatic Expressions of MMP-2 and TIMP-2 for C57 Mice with Experimental Hepatic Fibrosis

Objective To observe the impacts of ruangan huajian granules on the hepatic expressions of matrix metalloproteinase-2(MMP-2)and matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor-2(TIMP-2)in C57 mice with experimental hepatic fibrosis.Methods 40 C57 mice were randomly divided into four groups,i.e.a normal control group,a model control group,a low-dose ruangan huajian granules group and a high-dose group,10 mice in each group.The intraperitoneal injection of carbon tetrachloride was used to model hepatic fibrosis for the mice.The immune histochemical staining technique was adopted to detect the expressions of MMP-2 and TIMP-2 in hepatic tissue.Meanwhile,the positive expression score and the hepatic tissue fibrosis score were analyzed.Results In the 6 weeks of modeling,the hepatic tissue MMP-2 and TIMP-2 expressions and the fibrosis score in each experimental group were different significantly in statistics as compared with those in the normal control group(P0.05).The ratio of MMP-2/TIMP-2 in either the high-dose or the low-dose ruangan huajian granules group was not significantly different as compared with that in the normal control group(P0.05).The expressions of MMP-2 and TIMP-2 and the fibrosis score in the high-dose and low-dose ruangan huajian granules groups were all obviously lower than those in the model control group,presenting the statistical significant difference(P0.05).The ratio of MMP-2/TIMP-2 tended to be balanced as compared with the normal control group,indicating the statistical significant difference(P0.05).Conclusion Ruangan huajian granules modulate the expressions of MMP-2 and TIMP-2 in the hepatic tissue of C57 mice and reduce the excessive deposition of ECM.Therefore this drug is effective on anti-hepatic fibrosis.