Oltipraz regenerates cirrhotic liver through CCAAT/enhancer binding protein-mediated stellate cell inactivation

SPECIFIC AIMSNo effective therapeutic agent is available for liver cirrhosis (LC), a chronic disease with a high mortality rate. We were challenged to study the effectiveness of oltipraz, which has been used clinically and studied extensively as a cancer chemopreventive agent in regeneration of cirrhotic liver with the hypothesis that activation of CCAAT/enhancer binding protein (C/EBP) inhibits transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) gene expression in stellate cells.PRINCIPAL FINDINGS1. Oltipraz increases survival rates of cirrhotic rats as a result of improvement of liver function and regeneration of cirrhotic liverWe induced LC in rats by injecting multiple doses of DMN for 4 wk and determined whether the survival rate of cirrhotic rats was improved during the next 4 wk of oltipraz treatment. A large fraction of vehicle-treated cirrhotic rats died within the first 3 wk. Oltipraz treatment (30 mg/kg, three times per week, orally for 4 wk) improved the survival rate (P<0.05; χ2 test) of these rats to 82%...