Ph. Park et al., Effect of tetrandrine on experimental hepatic fibrosis induced by bile duct ligation and scission in rats, PHARM TOX, 87(6), 2000, pp. 261-268
Tetrandrine, an alkaloid isolated from the Chinese medicinal herb Stephania
tetrandra, has been shown to elicit antifibrotic effects in various cell t
ypes. In the present study, the effect of tetrandrine on liver fibrosis was
investigated by using bile duct ligation and scission in rats as a model o
f hepatic fibrosis. Treatment with tetrandrine in fibrotic rats reduced ser
um aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, and alkaline phosp
hatase levels to 72%, 52% and 51% that of controls at 10 mg/kg/day, respect
ively. Liver hydroxyproline contents in tetrandrine-treated rats with bile
duct ligation and scission were also reduced to 65% of that of control rats
with bile duct ligation and scission at 10 mg/kg/day. The morphological ch
aracteristics of fibrotic liver, which appeared in control bile duct ligati
on and scission group, were improved in tetrandrine-treated bile duct ligat
ion and scission group. We also examined the effect of tetrandrine on cultu
red rat hepatic stellate cells, which plays an important role in the pathog
enesis of hepatic fibrosis, activation to investigate whether it could act
mainly by direct action on rat hepatic fibroblastic cells. In cultured rat
hepatic stellate cells, tetrandrine reduced DNA synthesis to 57% of control
hepatic stellate cells at 10 mug/ml without affecting cell viability Smoot
h muscle-cc-actin expression, the phenotypic marker of activated hepatic st
ellate cells, was also decreased. We conclude that tetrandrine has an antif
ibrotic effect on liver fibrosis in rats induced by bile duct ligation and
scission, indicating that it might exert a direct effect on rat hepatic ste
llate cells.