picibanil and Cholangitis

Cholangitis-induced liver damage was created in rats by intraductal injection of OK432, a lyophilized incubation mixture of group A Streptococcus pyogenes of human origin. Oral, low-dose methotrexate (MTX) was given to one group to study its protective effect on liver injury. The liver histology was studied and semiquantitatively graded. The OK432-induced changes were compared with and without MTX therapy. The results revealed statistically significant higher grades of portal inflammation and sinusoidal infiltration in rats treated with OK432 compared to saline-treated controls. There was significant improvement in liver changes in the group treated with MTX compared to the untreated group. It could be concluded that oral, low-dose, pulsed MTX therapy caused significant improvement in cholangitis-induced liver damage in rats.

Topics: Animals; Chi-Square Distribution; Cholangitis; Disease Models, Animal; Methotrexate; Picibanil; Rats; Statistics, Nonparametric