Study on Protective Effect and Mechanism of Hepatocyte Growth-promoting Factor on CCl₄-induced Liver Injury in Mice

OBJECTIVE To study the protective effect and mechanism of hepatocyte growth-promoting factor(PHGF) on CCl₄-induced liver injury in mice and provide some theoretical basis for its clinical use. METHODS Liver injury model in mice was established by ig CCl₄(80 mg·kg^-1) and 3 doses of PHGF(12.5, 25, 50 mg·kg^-1) were administrated intravenously for 7 days. The ALT, AST, T-SOD and MDA levels of serum were detected and the liver tissues were observed histologically. The Bcl-2 and Bax protein expressions in liver tissue were detected using Western blot method. RESULTS The ALT and AST levels of each dose group of PHGF were significantly higher than those of the model group(P<0.05), but no significant differences of T-SOD and MDA levels could be found between model group and other groups. Through the pathological observation, each dose group of liver cell necrosis situation were obviously better than the model group. The administrated group, according high to low, the ratio of Bcl-2 and Bax increased significantly higher than the model group(P<0.01). CONCLUSION PHGF can protect the CCl4-induced liver injury in mice and the mechanism of action may have nothing to do with antioxidant effect but upregulation the expression of Bcl-2 protein and down expression of Bax protein.