Effects ofSalmonella infection on hepatic damage following acute liver injury in rats

摘要

BACKGROUND: Acute liver injury is a common clinical disor-der associated with intestinal barrier injury and disturbance of intestinal microbiota. Probiotic supplementation has been reported to reduce liver injury; however, it is unclear whether enteropathogen infection exacerbates liver injury. The pur-pose of this study was to address this unanswered question using a rat model. n METHODS: Oral supplementation withSalmonella enterica serovar enteritidis (S. enteritidis) was given to rats for 7 days. Different degrees of acute liver injury were then induced by intraperitoneal injection of D-galactosamine. The presence and extent of liver injury was assayed by measuring the con-centrations of serum alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, and total bilirubin. Histology was used to observe liver tissue damage. Additionally, we measured the changes in plasma endotoxin, serum cytokines and bacterial translocation to clarify the mechanisms underlying intestinal microbiota associated liver injury. n RESULTS: The levels of liver damage and endotoxin were sig-niifcantly increased in theSalmonella infected rats with severe liver injury compared with the no infection rats with severe liver injury (P<0.01); The peyer’s patch CD3+ T cell counts were increased signiifcantly when theSalmonellainfection with severe injury group was compared with the normal group (P<0.05).S. enteritidis pretreatment enhanced intestinal bar-rier impairment and bacterial translocation. n CONCLUSIONS: OralS. enteritidis administration exacer-bates acute liver injury, especially when injury was severe. Major factors of the exacerbation include inlfammatory and oxidative stress injuries induced by the translocated bacteria and associated endotoxins, as well as over-activation of the immune system in the intestine and liver.