Clinical usefulness of edaravone for acute liver injury

Background and Aims: Edaravone, a newly synthesized radical scavenger, has shown an excellent effect on treating stroke patients. The effect of edaravone on carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced acute liver injury was examined. Methods: Six rats were injected with CCl4 alone and six rats were intravenously injected with edaravone immediately after and 3 h after injection of CCl4 . Another six rats were injected with olive oil alone. The animals were killed at 24 h after the CCl4 injection. Results: Injection of CCl4 was followed by a marked increase in serum alanine aminotranferase (ALT) level (CCl4, 1630.6+/-606.8 IU/L; olive oil, 21.0+/-2.6 IU/L; P<0.001),<LF>lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) level (CCl4, 5068.0+/-2956.4 <LF>IU/L; olive oil, 203.6+/-30.5 IU/L; P<0.005), and total bilirubin (TB) level (CCl4, 0.88+/-0.48 mg/dL; olive oil, <LF>0.37+/-0.05 mg/dL; P<0.01), whereas in the edaravone-treated rats, the ALT (119.4+/-113.5 IU/L, P<0.001), LDH (369.7+/-288.2 IU/L, P<0.005), and TB values (0.29+/-0.16 mg/dL, P<0.01) were significantly decreased. Histological examination of the liver by hematoxylin and eosin and oil red O staining showed a marked reduction of steatosis in the CCl4 and edaravone-treated rats compared with the CCl4 -injected rats. Significant inhibition of hepatocytic apoptosis was demonstrated by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated UTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) method in the edaravone-treated rats. Conclusions:These results suggest that edaravone has a marked preventive effect on oxidative stress-induced acute liver injury. (C) 2003 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.