Accelarating Effect of Ischemia and Reperfusion on Hepatic Tumor Metastases in Rat Livers

Masafumi Shiotani, Yonson Ku, Yoichi Saitoh

First Department of Surgery, Kobe University School of Medicine

This study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that ischemia-reperfusion injury of the liver contributes to hepatic metastases of rat ascitic hepatoma (AH130). Sprague-Dawley rats underwent either a sham operation consisting of only a laparotomy (group I, n=8) or a laparotomy and 20-minute (group II, n=7) or 30-minute ischemia (group III, n=8) of the median and left hepatic lobes by clamping of the hepatic artery and portal branches. After a l0-minute stabilization period after laparotomy (group I) or the start of reperfusion (groups II and III), the animals received an intravenous injection of 1 ml of a suspension of AH130 cells (1×10⁶ cells/ml) via the dorsal penile vein. Ten days later, the animals were sacrificed and the macroscopic metastatic foci were counted. In addition, the metastatic index (MI), as defined by the number of tumor foci per gram of liver tissue, in the right lobe and in the median plus left lobes was compared. In group I, MIs were 0.6±0.7 (mean±SD) and 1.0±1.3 tumor foci/g of liver tissue, respectively, in the right and the median plus left lobes, showing similar values in the two regions. However, in group II, the MI of the median plus left lobes (3.4±2.8) was significantty higher than that of the nonischemic right lobe (1.0±1.1, p<0.05) . In group III, MIs were 17.5±15.2 and 6.7±7.3, respectively, in the ischemic and nonischemic lobes, also showing a statistically significant difference between the two regions (p<0.05). Furthermore, in the median plus left lobes, the longer the duration of ischemia, the higher the MI (p<0.05). These results suggest that ischemia-reperfusion injury of the liver accelerates the risk of hematogenous metastasis to the liver.

Key words
hepatocellular carcinoma, ischemia-reperfusion injury, hepatic metastasis

Reprint requests
Yonson Ku First Department of Surgery, Kobe University School of Medicine
7-5-2 Kusunoki-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe, 650 JAPAN

Accepted
January 10, 1996

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