Cytokine profiles in orthotopic transplanted liver pretreated with reserved infusion of Nodosin

To study the cytokine profiles in orthotopic transplanted liver pretreated with reserved infusion of Nodosin in rat,24 male Wistar-SD rats were randomly assigned into 4 groups(n=3).i.e.control group,Nodosin group,positive control group(Copp group) and negative control group(Znpp group).Hepatic tissues were obtained 1 day and 4 days after perfusion.Histochemical,biochemical and Tunel assays were performed to evaluate the efficacy of liver transplantation.Four correlation factors(TNF-α,IFN-γ,IL-10 and ET-1) were detected by RT-quantitative PCR.After the donor livers were reservedly infused with Nodosin,liver cell apoptosis was less than that in control group.Serum level of AST was also dramatically decreased(P0.05) compared to the control group as well as Suzuki's score in representative rat liver recipients.More importantly,cytokines involved in the acute rejection including TNF-α and IFN-γ were less expressed in Nodosin-treated group than in control group(P0.05) whereas the level of IL-10 with immuregulatory role in the liver was increased.Endothelin-1 was down-regulated in Nodosin-pretreated livers after transplantation.Our results demonstrated that reserved infusion with Nodosin before liver transplantation could effectively attenuate the apoptosis and liver injury of the implanted liver.This was consistent with the shifts of cytokine expression from Th1 rejection responses to regulatory immune responses.It is evident that these effects together with the amelioration of liver function mediated by Nodosin would improve the survival and function of implanted liver,resulting in the efficacy of liver transplantation.