title: The effect of antifibrotic drugs in rat precision-cut fibrotic liver slices.
abstract: Two important signaling pathways in liver fibrosis are the PDGF- and TGFβ pathway and compounds inhibiting these pathways are currently developed as antifibrotic drugs. Testing antifibrotic drugs requires large numbers of animal experiments with high discomfort. Therefore, a method to study these drugs ex vivo was developed using precision-cut liver slices from fibrotic rat livers (fPCLS), representing an ex vivo model with a multicellular fibrotic environment. We characterized the fibrotic process in fPCLS from rat livers after 3 weeks of bile duct ligation (BDL) during incubation and tested compounds predominantly inhibiting the TGFβ pathway (perindopril, valproic acid, rosmarinic acid, tetrandrine and pirfenidone) and PDGF pathway (imatinib, sorafenib and sunitinib). Gene expression of heat shock protein 47 (Hsp47), α smooth muscle actin (αSma) and pro-collagen 1A1 (Pcol1A1) and protein expression of collagens were determined. During 48 hours of incubation, the fibrosis process continued in control fPCLS as judged by the increased gene expression of the three fibrosis markers, and the protein expression of collagen 1, mature fibrillar collagen and total collagen. Most PDGF-inhibitors and TGFβ-inhibitors significantly inhibited the increase in gene expression of Hsp47, αSma and Pcol1A1. Protein expression of collagen 1 was significantly reduced by all PDGF-inhibitors and TGFβ-inhibitors, while total collagen was decreased by rosmarinic acid and tetrandrine only. However, fibrillar collagen expression was not changed by any of the drugs. In conclusion, rat fPCLS can be used as a functional ex vivo model of established liver fibrosis to test antifibrotic compounds inhibiting the PDGF- and TGFβ signalling pathway.
authors.affiliation: Pharmacokinetics, Toxicology and Targeting, Department of Pharmacy, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands; Pharmaceutical Technology and Biopharmacy, Department of Pharmacy, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Inge M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Westra
authors.affiliation: Pharmaceutical Technology and Biopharmacy, Department of Pharmacy, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Dorenda
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Oosterhuis
authors.affiliation: Pharmacokinetics, Toxicology and Targeting, Department of Pharmacy, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Geny M M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Groothuis
authors.affiliation: Pharmaceutical Technology and Biopharmacy, Department of Pharmacy, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Olinga
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D003078:Colchicine / Q000494:pharmacology; D024042:Collagen Type I / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D003584:Cytological Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000187:drug effects; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D010982:Platelet-Derived Growth Factor / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013194:Staining and Labeling; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D024042:Collagen Type I; D010982:Platelet-Derived Growth Factor; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta; D003078:Colchicine
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