Low-dose steroid pretreatment ameliorates the transient impairment of liver regeneration.
AIM
To determine if liver regeneration (LR) could be disturbed following radiofrequency (RF) ablation and whether modification of LR by steroid administration occurs.


METHODS
Sham operation, partial hepatectomy (PH), and partial hepatectomy with radiofrequency ablation (PHA) were performed on adult Fisher 344 rats. We investigated the recovery of liver volume, DNA synthetic activities, serum cytokine/chemokine levels and signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 DNA-binding activities in the nucleus after the operations. Additionally, the effects of steroid (dexamethasone) pretreatment in the PH group (S-PH) and the PHA group (S-PHA) were compared.


RESULTS
The LR after PHA was impaired, with high serum cytokine/chemokine induction compared to PH, although the ratio of the residual liver weight to body weight was not significantly different. Steroid pretreatment disturbed LR in the S-PH group. On the other hand, low-dose steroid pretreatment improved LR and suppressed tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α elevation in the S-PHA group, with recovery of STAT3 DNA-binding activity. On the other hand, low-dose steroid pretreatment improved LR and suppressed TNF-α elevation in the S-PHA group, with recovery of STAT3 DNA-binding activity.


CONCLUSION
LR is disturbed after RF ablation, with high serum cytokine/chemokine induction. Low-dose steroid administration can improve LR after RF ablation with TNF-α suppression.
['Shibata|Toshihito|T|', 'Mizuguchi|Toru|T|', 'Nakamura|Yukio|Y|', 'Kawamoto|Masaki|M|', 'Meguro|Makoto|M|', 'Ota|Shigenori|S|', 'Hirata|Koichi|K|', 'Ooe|Hidekazu|H|', 'Mitaka|Toshihiro|T|']
D000818:Animals D017115:Catheter Ablation D018925:Chemokines D016207:Cytokines D005260:Female D006498:Hepatectomy D008099:Liver D008115:Liver Regeneration D051381:Rats D011916:Rats, Inbred F344 D013256:Steroids D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha
Steroid Liver regeneration Hepatectomy Radiofrequency ablation Tumor necrosis factor