Administration of solutions high in BCAA(branched-chain amino acids) has been recommended to patients with severe liver failure. However. However, the effect of this treatment on the process of liver regeneration is still inconclusive. It is very
important to analyze the factors that promote liver regeneration or that offer beneficial effects to the liver, especially in irreversible pathological conditions such as liver cirrhosis.
The purpose of this study is to analyze the pattern of blood amino acid in normal regenerating liver, and to analyze the effect of BCAA and arginine on liver regeneration.
In normal rats with regenerating liver induced by hepatectomy. the blood amino acid pattern was monitored for 2 weeks after 70% hepatectomy. The molar ratios of BCAA/AAA and of urea/total amino acids in the blood were found to decrease in the
liver
regenerating period. On the other hand, the blood amino acid composition was monitored in normal and cirrhotic rat livers in the prehepatectomy state and 24 hours after thepatectomy. In the blood of rats with cirrhotic liver, alanine and arginine
were
comparatively decreased. The molar ratio of BCAA/AAA was also lowered compared to those in the normal group. On the basis of these results, we investigated the effect of amino acid administration in rats with normal and cirrhotic livers, by means
of
H3-thymidine uptake in the regenerating remnant liver tissue after a 70% partial hepatectomy. The amino acid formula was derived based on the amino acid pattern in the blood of the regenerating rat liver. The formula was administered to the
respective
experimental groups for more than 2 weeks. BCAA treatment prior to partial hepatectomy increased the H3-thymidine uptake in both normal and cirrhotic rat liver tissues, compared with treatment with only 10% glucose. The addition of Arginine to
BCAA
in
the oral administration to the rats stimulated the increase of H3-thymidine uptake even further.
From these results, it can be concluded that treatment of BCAA promotes liver regeneration, and addition of arginine makes this effect more prominent.
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