The Assessment of the Efficiency of Cell Therapy of Experimental Liver Cirrhosis by Means of Ultrasound Examination

Objective: to determine the relevance of ultrasound examination in diagnostics and assessment of the efficiency of cell therapy of experimental liver cirrhosis in rabbits.

Material and methods. The experiment was performed on white Californian rabbits (n = 45). Liver cirrhosis was modelled by means of subcutaneous injections of 50 % solution of carbon tetrachloride according to the scheme. Cell therapy was performed by means of a single intraportal injection of autologous mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) at an amount of 5 × 106 cells per kg. During the experiment all the animals were performed the ultrasound examination of the abdominal cavity, as well as the morphological analysis of liver tissue samples.

Results. After 5 months of the liver cirrhosis modeling, the anteroposterior liver size and diameter of the portal vein in group 2 and group 3 were statistically larger than in group 1 (р < 0.001, Mann-Whitney test). There was no statistical difference in the anteroposterior liver size (р = 0.38) and diameter of the portal vein (р = 0.36) between group 2 and group 3. 1 month after the injection of autologous MSCs, the rabbits of group 3 detected some improvement of the echimage of the damaged liver, which was also reflected in a statistically significant decrease of the liver size by 8.2 % (р < 0.01, Wilcoxon test) and diameter of the portal vein by 23 % (р < 0.001) in comparison with the indicators before the injection of MSCs.

Conclusion. The ultrasound examination in the present study has proved itself to be a reliable method of intravital diagnostics of pathological changes in the conditions of a chronic experiment, and also has revealed a positive impact of cell therapy on liver cirrhosis in the rabbits. The obtained data were confirmed by the morphological methods of the analysis of the liver tissue samples of the animals during the experiment.

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