Low-power laser irradiation fails to improve liver regeneration in elderly rats at 48 h after 70 % resection

The liver regeneration is an important clinical issue after major hepatectomies. Unfortunately, many organs (including the liver) exhibit age-related impairments regarding their regenerative capacity. Recent studies found that low-power laser irradiation (LPLI) has a stimulatory effect on the liver...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Araújo, Tiago G., Oliveira, Alexandre G. [UNESP], Tobar, Natália, Moreira, Luciana R., Reis, Edmyr R., Nicola, Ester M. D., de L. Jorge, Gracinda, dos R. Tártaro, Rodolfo, Boin, Ilka F. S. F., Saad, Mário J. Abdalla, Teixeira, Antonio R. Franchi
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2015
País:Brasil
Institución:Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP)
Repositorio:Repositório Institucional da UNESP
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.unesp.br:11449/168007
Acceso en línea:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10103-014-1598-0
http://hdl.handle.net/11449/168007
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Aging
Elderly
Hepatectomy
HGF
Laser
Liver regeneration
Met
Proliferation
Descripción
Sumario:The liver regeneration is an important clinical issue after major hepatectomies. Unfortunately, many organs (including the liver) exhibit age-related impairments regarding their regenerative capacity. Recent studies found that low-power laser irradiation (LPLI) has a stimulatory effect on the liver regeneration process. However, its effects in elderly remain unknown. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the main molecular mechanisms involved in liver regeneration of partially hepatectomized elderly rats exposed to LPLI. The effects of 15 min of LPLI (wavelength of 632.8 nm; fluence of 0.97 J/cm2; total energy delivered of 3.6 J) were evaluated in hepatectomized elderly Wistar male rats. Afterwards, through immunoblotting approaches, the protein expression and phosphorylation levels of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), Met, Akt and Erk 1/2 signaling pathways as well as the proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) were investigated. It was observed that LPLI was not able to improve liver regeneration in elderly rats as evidenced by the lack of improvement of HGF and PCNA protein expression or phosphorylation levels of Met, Akt and Erk 1/2 in the remnant livers. In sum, this study demonstrated that the main molecular pathway, i.e. HGF/Met → Akt and Erk 1/2 → PCNA, involved in the hepatic regeneration process was not improved by LPLI in elderly hepatectomized rats, which in turn rules out LPLI as an adjuvant therapy, as observed in this protocol of liver regeneration evaluation (i.e. at 48 h after 70 % resection), in elderly.