Abstract
AIM: To investigate the protective effects and mechanisms of baicalin and octreotide on hepatic injury in rats with severe acute pancreatitis (SAP). METHODS: The SAP rat models were prepared and randomly assigned to the model control group, baicalin treated group, and octreotide treated group while other healthy rats were assigned to the sham-operated group. Rat mortality, levels of ALT, AST, liver and pancreas pathological changes in all groups were observed at 3, 6 and 12 h after operation. Tissue microarray (TMA) sections of hepatic tissue were prepared to observe expression levels of Bax, Bcl-2 protein and caspase-3, and changes of apoptotic indexes. RESULTS: Rat survival at 12 h, expression levels of Bax, caspase-3 protein and apoptotic indexes of liver were all significantly higher in treated groups than in model control group. While the liver and pancreas pathological scores, contents of ALT, AST, and expression levels of Bcl-2 protein were all lower in treated groups than in the model control group. CONCLUSION: Both baicalin and octreotide can protect rats with SAP by decreasing the contents of ALT, AST and expression levels of Bcl-2 protein, and improving the expression levels of Bax protein, caspase-3 protein, and inducing apoptosis.