Clinical usefulness of edaravone for acute liver injury

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Abstract
Background: Edaravone, a newly synthesized radical scavenger, has shown an excellent effect on treating stroke patients. The effect of edaravone on carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)‐induced acute liver injury was examined.Methods: Six rats were injected with CCl4 alone and six rats were intravenously injected with edaravone immediately after and 3 h after injection of CCl4. Another six rats were injected with olive oil alone. The animals were killed at 24 h after the CCl4 injection.Results: Injection of CCl4 was followed by a marked increase in serum alanine aminotranferase (ALT) level (CCl4, 1630.6 ± 606.8 IU/L; olive oil, 21.0 ± 2.6 IU/L; P < 0.001), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) level (CCl4, 5068.0 ± 2956.4 IU/L; olive oil, 203.6 ± 30.5 IU/L; P < 0.005), and total bilirubin (TB) level (CCl4, 0.88 ± 0.48 mg/dL; olive oil, 0.37 ± 0.05 mg/dL; P < 0.01), whereas in the edaravone‐treated rats, the ALT (119.4 ± 113.5 IU/L, P < 0.001), LDH (369.7 ± 288.2 IU/L, P < 0.005), and TB values (0.29 ± 0.16 mg/dL, P < 0.01) were significantly decreased. Histological examination of the liver by hematoxylin and eosin and oil red O staining showed a marked reduction of steatosis in the CCl4 and edaravone‐treated rats compared with the CCl4‐injected rats. Significant inhibition of hepatocytic apoptosis was demonstrated by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase‐mediated UTP nick‐end labeling (TUNEL) method in the edaravone‐treated rats.Conclusions: These results suggest that edaravone has a marked preventive effect on oxidative stress‐induced acute liver injury.© 2003 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd

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