Role of activation of hepatic stellate cells in grafts cold ischemia injury in rat liver transplantation model

    SU Ming1£¬ WAN Jun2, HUANG Zhiª²Qiang1, ZHOU Ningª²Xin1

    1Institute of Hepatobiliary Surgery, PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853£¬China,2School of Surgery, Hepatic Research Center of Hong Kong University, Hong Kong, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To investigate the activation of hepatic stellate cells in rat liver grafts after cold ischemia injury. METHODS: A rat orthotopic liver transplantation model was applied.Recipients were sacrificed at 6 and 48 h after liver transplantation.The liver tissues were sampled for determination of hepatic stellate cell (HSC) activation (aª²SMA expression) by immunostaining.7ª²day survival rates were compared between the rats with different cold ischemia periods. RESULTS: The 7ª²day graft survival rate of 5 h cold ischemia group was significantly lower than that of 1 h group (25% [3/12] vs 91ª±7% [11/12]). The intragraft expression of ¦Áª²SMA in the 5 h cold ischemia group was significantly higher than that of the 1 h cold ischemia group during the first 6 and 48 hours after liver transplantation. CONCLUSION: Significant activation of hepatic stellate cells might play an important role in graft cold ischemia injury in rat liver transplantation model. ......