Pegylated interferon-alpha plus taurine in treatment of rat liver fibrosis

Table 1 Histological scoring model

0	No fibrosis or minimal fibrous expansion of occasional portal areas
1	Moderate fibrous expansion of some portal areas with short fibrous septae
2	Moderate fibrous expansion of most portal areas, occasional portal-to-portal bridging
3	None or minimal expansion of portal areas, porto-portal fibrosis, incomplete bridging nodules
4	Marked portal fibrosis, portal to portal fibrosis, occasional micronodules
5	Mild to moderate fibrous expansion in portal areas, micronodules, incomplete cirrhosis
6	Marked fibrosis in portal areas, macro- and micronodules with thick fibrous septae, complete cirrhosis

Table 2 Results of fibrosis, oxidative stress parameters, activated HSC counts and apoptotic cells in groups 1-4

	Spontaneous recovery(n = 15)	Peginterferon-alpha(n = 15)	Taurine(n = 15)	Peginterferon-alpha plusTaurine (n = 15)
Histological score	5 (5-6)	3 (2-4)	2 (1-3)	3 (2-4)
Percentage fibrosis (%)	14.3 ± 0.8	7.9 ± 0.5	7.9 ± 0.6	6.1 ± 0.3
Hydroxyproline (μg/g wet weight)	1.03 ± 0.07	0.58 ± 0.04	0.64 ± 0.03	0.32 ± 0.04
MDA (nmol/g tissue)	47.8 ± 1.0	43.3 ± 1.8	20.2 ± 0.8	18.4 ± 0.6
GPx (U/g tissue)	128 ± 3	168 ± 6	271 ± 13	270 ± 11
SOD (U/g tissue)	343 ± 5	385 ± 8	644 ± 14	619 ± 19
alpha-SMA (+) cell count	120.0 ± 9.4	59.6 ± 2.7	46.7 ± 3.5	32.6 ± 3.0
Apoptotic hepatocyte count	19.1 ± 1.0	31.3 ± 2.6	34.8 ± 3.9	43.9 ± 4.0
Apoptotic activated HSC count	4.6 ± 0.5	14.1 ± 1.5	11.0 ± 0.8	21.5 ± 2.0

MDA: Malondialdehyde; GPx: Glutathione peroxidase; SOD: Superoxide dismutase; alpha-SMA: alpha-smooth muscle actin.