الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Liver fibrosis is a major handicapping disease. Hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) are the pivotal cells in liver fibrosis pathogenesis. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) are participating in liver fibrosis treatment; chitosan nanoparticles (CNP) provided the effective delivery of HGF to its niche. This work was designed to compare the effect of MSCs and HGF, when given separately and when mixed together, in improving liver fibrosis; using a rat model of thioacetamide (TAA)-induced liver injury. Sixty male albino rats were used in this work and they were divided into control group and the TAA induced fibrosis group that was further subdivided into untreated fibrosis group, MSCs treated group, HGF incorporated CNP (HGF-CNP) treated group, MSCs + HGF-CNP treated group and CNP treated group. The livers were removed from sacrificed rats and processed for staining with H&E, Masson`s trichrome and immunohistochemical staining for alpha smooth muscle actin (α–SMA) and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). Fluorescent microscope was used to detect PKH26 labeled MSCs. The present study revealed that MSCs when mixed with HGF-CNP had potent effect in improving TAA induced liver fibrosis as compared with the moderate effect of MSCs or HGF-CNP alone. In the other hand CNP achieved slight improvement in TAA induced liver fibrosis. Key words: Liver fibrosis, MSCs, HGF, CNP, HSCs, TAA |