Effects Of Chronic Intermittent Hypoxia On Hepatic Function And Protective Mechanism Of Adiponectin In Rats

Objective:Recently,various studies have demonstrated that OS AS(obstructive sleep apnea syndrome)can lead to hepatic injury.CIH(chronic intermittent hy-poxia),the main pathophysiological characteristic of OSAS,lead to NAFLD(non-alcoholic fatty liver disease).To explore the effect of CIH on rats hepatic func-tion,and the protective mechanism of adiponectin(Ad),Methods:Sixty healthy male wistar rats were randomly divided into 4 groups:nor-mal control(NC),NC+Ad,CIH,and CIH+Ad groups with 15 rats in each.The rats in CIH and CIH+Ad groups were exposed to a intermittent hypoxic chamber 8 hours per day.Meanwhile,the rats in both the NC and NC + Ad groups were housed with normal pressure air.The rats in the NC+Ad and CIH+Ad groups were also treated with an intravenous injection of Ad(10?g),twice a week.After 4 months,compari-son among groups was made about plasma levels of aspartate amino transferase(AST),alanine amino transferase(ALT),degrees of endoplasmic reticulum stress(ERS)and mitochondrium associated cellular apcoptosis.Results:No significant difference was detected in all items between NC and NC+Ad groups(all P>0.05).Plasma hepatic enzyme levels of AST and ALT were signifi-cantly higher in CIH group[(319±21)and(113±9)U/L]than those in NC group[(178±19)and(51±9)U/L]and NC+Ad group[(175±16)and(52±8)U/L](all P<0.05).Compared with NC and NC+Ad groups,there was more remarkable ERS and mitochondrial injury associated cellular apoptosis in hepatic tissues of CIH group.Such pathological changes were less obvious in CIH+Ad group than in CIH group(all P<0.05).Conclusions:CIH can induce hepatic injury in rats,while Ad supplement may play a protective role possibly through inhibition of ERS and associated pathways of cel-lular apoptosis.