Study on the Anti-liver Fibrosis Activity of HSA-HGF in vivo

Abstract:

The hepatocyte growth factor（HGF）plays an important role in the treatment of liver fibrosis，but the instability and short half-life it is not stabl in blood circulation limit its application. Thus，great efforts have been invested to improve the stability of HGF. Based on the preliminary research，this study is devoted to the study of the anti-liver fibrosis activity in vivo of human serum albumin（HSA）fusion protein HSA-HGF. Firstly，the mice were randomly divided into the following groups：（1）control；（2）liver fibrosis model；（3）positive control；（4）HSA group；（5）the treatment group of HGF；（6）the treatment group of HSA-HGF. And the mice liver fibrosis models were constructed by CCl4 induction. Secondly，the anti-fibrosis effects were determined by hematoxylin eosin staining，masson staining，serum liver function index activity detection，qRT-PCR detection of α-SMA and COL I，and TRFIA detection of Half-Life in vivo. Finally，the results indicated that：1）the fusion protein and its monomer drug could both significantly promote liver recovery of the mice liver fibrosis model；2）Compared with the monomer drug，the fusion protein still maintained the significant anti-fibrosis effect even at low injection frequency；3）the half-life of this fusion protein remarkably increased from 3 min to 3 h in vivo. Our study indicated that the HSA-HGF fusion protein could provide the capability for liver protection and anti-fibrosis，and the fusion protein shows higher stability and a longer half-life than the monomer drug. In general，the HSA-HGF fusion protein would be a potential drug for the treatment of liver fibrosis.