Serum Interleukin-6 Changes according to Rejection after Heterotopic Partial Liver Transplantation in Rat

Lee, Sang Ho; Yoon, Mung Hi; Lee, Chung Han

Abstract

PURPOSE: Liver transplantation has been accepted as the treatment for end-stage-liver diseases. However, despite the development of more powerful and selective immunosuppressive agents to improve survival following transplantation, graft rejection remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality. It is not always easy to diagnose rejection precisely at an early stage even by liver biosy, which can involve risk, especially when the recipient shows coagulation disorder. Therefore, it is important to develop noninvasive diagnostic approach that can supplement or substitute for histological examination in order to diagnose the rejection response earlier and more precisely.
METHODS
In this study, as the experimental group (rejection combination strains), 30% partial liver of Dark-Agauti (DA) rat was transplanted heterotopically to Sprague-Dawly (SD) rat by microsurgical technique. As the control group, partial liver of SD rat was transplanted heterotopically to SD rat. After liver transplantation, serum inteleukin-6 (IL-6), GOT/GPT and histological findings of grafts were evaluated.
RESULTS
In the experimental group, serum IL-6 was 84.6 pg/ml on postoperative 2 days, and not decreased so much, remained 28.9 pg/ml on postoperative 8 days. In the control group, serum IL-6 was 58.8 pg/ml on postoperative 2 days, after then decreased to 6.72 pg/ml. In the experimental group, serum IL-6 was already increased, in which rejection was histologically confirmed.
CONCLUSION
Therefore, IL-6 may be used as the noninvasive diagnostic parameter to predict rejection of graft after liver transplantation.