Lung injury induced by common bile duct ligation in mice

Liver dysfunction and cirrhosis affect vasculature in several organ systems and cause impairment of organ functions, thereby increasing morbidity and mortality. If a mouse model of hepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS) could be established, greater insight into the genetic basis of the disease would be gained. Our objectives were to establish a mouse model of lung injury after common bile duct ligation (CBDL) and to investigate pulmonary pathogenesis for application in future therapeutic approaches. Balb/c mice were subjected to CBDL. Immunohistochemical analyses and real-time quantitative reverse transcriptional polymerase chain reaction were performed on pulmonary tissues. The presence of HPS markers were detected by western blot and microarray analyses. We observed extensive proliferation of CD31-positive pulmonary vascular endothelial cells 2 weeks after CBDL, and identified 11 up-regulated and 8 down-regulated proteins that were associated with angiogenesis. MMP-9 protein was highly expressed at 3 weeks after CBDL, and less expressed in lungs of the control group. Contrary to our expectation, lung pathology in our mouse model exhibited differences from that of rat models, and the mechanisms responsible for these differences are unknown. This phenomenon may be explained by contrasting processes related to TNF induction of angiogenic signaling pathways in the inflammatory phase; thus, we suggest that our mouse model can be applied to pulmonary pathological analyses in the inflammatory phase, i.e., to systemic inflammatory response syndrome, acute lung injury, and MOD syndrome.

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