Department of Gastroenterology, Yamagata University Faculty of Medicine, Yamagata, Japan.
Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST), Tokyo, Japan.
PLoS One. 2021 Apr 14;16(4):e0249556. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0249556. eCollection 2021.
Autonomic nerve fibers in the liver are distributed along the portal tract, being involved in the regulation of blood flow, bile secretion and hepatic metabolism, thus contributing to systemic homeostasis. The present study investigated changes in hepatic nerve fibers in liver biopsy specimens from patients with normal liver, viral hepatitis and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, in relation to clinical background. The areal ratio of nerve fibers to the total portal area was automatically calculated for each sample. The nerve fiber areal ratios (NFAR) for total nerve fibers and sympathetic nerve fibers were significantly lower in liver affected by chronic hepatitis, particularly viral hepatitis, and this was also the case for advanced liver fibrosis. However, the degree of inflammatory activity did not affect NFAR for either whole nerves or sympathetic nerves. Comparison of samples obtained before and after antiviral treatment for HCV demonstrated recovery of NFAR along with improvement of liver fibrosis.
肝脏中的自主神经纤维沿门脉分布，参与调节血流、胆汁分泌和肝脏代谢，从而有助于全身的内稳态。本研究调查了正常肝脏、病毒性肝炎和非酒精性脂肪性肝炎患者肝活检标本中肝神经纤维的变化与临床背景的关系。自动计算了每个样本中神经纤维与总门脉面积的面积比。慢性肝炎（特别是病毒性肝炎）和晚期肝纤维化患者的总神经纤维和交感神经纤维的神经纤维面积比（NFAR）显著降低，而无论是整个神经还是交感神经的 NFAR 均不受炎症活动程度的影响。比较 HCV 抗病毒治疗前后的样本发现，NFAR 恢复与肝纤维化改善有关。
