Assessment of Effect of Intraperitoneal Tacrolimus on Liver Regeneration in Major (70%) Hepatectomy Model After Experimental Pringle Maneuver in Rats

Abstract Aim Small-for-size grafts become more important especially in living donor liver transplants. There are different side effects of the Pringle maneuver used to reduce blood loss and immunosuppressive medications used to prevent graft rejection in liver transplants on liver regeneration. We aimed to research the effect of situations where tacrolimus and the Pringle maneuver were applied or not on liver regeneration in rats with partial hepatectomy. Material and Methods This study was completed with 35 Wistar Albino rats. Subjects were randomly divided into five groups: Group 1 had the abdomen opened and no other procedure performed; Group 2 underwent 70% hepatectomy ; Group 3 had 15-minute Pringle maneuver+70% hepatectomy; Group 4 had 70% hepatectomy+5 days of 1 mg/kg/day i.p. tacrolimus and Group 5 had 150minute Pringle maneuver+70% hepatectomy+5 days of 1 mg/kg/day i.p. tacrolimus. All rats were sacrificed on the seventh postoperative day, remaining liver tissue was weighed and weight indices created. The remaining liver tissue was stained with phosphohistone H3 and mitotic index calculated. Results When the group with Pringle maneuver, 70% hepatectomy and tacrolimus administration is compared with the control group in terms of mitotic index and weight index, there were no statistically significant differences identified. Conclusion Suppression of regeneration forms a risk after liver transplantation with small-volume grafts. As a result, research into the effect of tacrolimus combined with the Pringle maneuver is important especially for transplantations after segmented liver grafts. In our study, we showed the use of tacrolimus had no negative effect on liver regeneration.