【Animal Modeling】-The changes of cytokines in the process of hepatocellular carcinoma in rats with oxymatrine combined with all-trans retinoic acid

  OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of oxymatrine combined with all-trans retinoic acid in inhibiting the formation of liver cancer in rats induced by diethylnitrosamine (DEN), and to explore its mechanism.

  METHODS: DEN-induced liver cancer rat model was established. After 18 weeks of modeling, Wistar rats were randomly divided into blank group, model group, and intervention group. The rats were sacrificed at 6, 12, and 18 weeks after induction of cancer, and stained with HE. The pathological changes of rat liver tissue were observed, the related indexes of rat liver function were detected, and the content of IL-6 in rats was detected by ELISA; the expression changes of let-7a, NF-κBp65, IL-6 and STAT3 mRNA were detected by RT-qPCR method; The protein changes of rat STAT3 and p-STAT3 were detected by Western blot.

  Results: The pathological observation of HE staining showed that the number of liver cancer nodules in the intervention group was significantly less than that in the model group, and the necrosis of hepatocytes was alleviated; compared with the model group, serum IL-6 and liver function indexes ALT, GGT and The levels of AST and ALP were significantly decreased (P<0.05); RT-qPCR test results: Compared with the model group, the expression level of let-7a mRNA in the liver tissue of the intervention group was significantly increased, while the levels of NF-κB-p65, IL-6 and NF-κB-p65, IL-6 and The expression of STAT3 mRNA was significantly decreased (P<0.05). On the 18th week of the experiment, Western blot results showed that the protein expressions of STAT3 and p-STAT3 in the intervention group were significantly lower than those in the model group (P<0.05).

  Conclusion: Oxymatrine combined with all-trans retinoic acid can significantly inhibit the formation of DEN-induced liver cancer in rats, and delay tumor growth to a certain extent.