Xu Qianqian, Xia Wenjing, Zhou Lazhen, Zou Zhengwei, Li Qiuxia, Deng Lijun, Wu Sha, Wang Tao, Cui Jingduo, Liu Zhiguo, Sun Tianxi, Ye Junsong, Li Fangzuo
College of Medical Information Engineering, Gannan Medical University, Ganzhou 341000, China.
Key Laboratory of Prevention and Treatment of Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Diseases, Ministry of Education, Gannan Medical University, Ganzhou 341000, China.
ACS Omega. 2022 Jan 24;7(4):3738-3745. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.1c06476. eCollection 2022 Feb 1.
Liver fibrosis is the intermediate process and inevitable stage of the development of chronic liver disease into cirrhosis. Reducing the degree of liver fibrosis plays an extremely important role in treating chronic liver disease and preventing liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. The formation of liver fibrosis is affected by iron deposition to a certain extent, and excessive iron deposition further induces liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. Herein, confocal microbeam X-ray fluorescence (μ-XRF) was used to determine the intensity and biodistribution of iron deposition at different time points in the process of liver fibrosis induced by thioacetamide (TAA) in rats. To our best knowledge, this is the first study using confocal μ-XRF to analyze hepatic iron deposition in hepatic fibrosis. The results showed that there are minor and trace elements such as iron, potassium, and zinc in the liver of rats. Continuous injection of TAA solution resulted in increasing liver iron deposition over time. The intensity of iron deposition in liver tissue was also significantly reduced after bone mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) were injected. These findings indicated that confocal μ-XRF can be used as a nondestructive and quantitative method of evaluating hepatic iron deposition in hepatic fibrosis, and iron deposition may play an important role in the progression of hepatic fibrosis induced by TAA.
肝纤维化是慢性肝病发展为肝硬化的中间过程和必经阶段。减轻肝纤维化程度对治疗慢性肝病以及预防肝硬化和肝癌起着极其重要的作用。肝纤维化的形成在一定程度上受铁沉积的影响，而过量的铁沉积会进一步诱发肝硬化和肝癌。在此，采用共聚焦微束X射线荧光（μ-XRF）技术测定硫代乙酰胺（TAA）诱导的大鼠肝纤维化过程中不同时间点铁沉积的强度和生物分布。据我们所知，这是首次使用共聚焦μ-XRF分析肝纤维化中肝脏铁沉积的研究。结果表明，大鼠肝脏中存在铁、钾、锌等微量元素。持续注射TAA溶液导致肝脏铁沉积随时间增加。注射骨髓间充质干细胞（BMSCs）后，肝组织中铁沉积强度也显著降低。这些发现表明，共聚焦μ-XRF可作为一种无损定量评估肝纤维化中肝脏铁沉积的方法，且铁沉积可能在TAA诱导的肝纤维化进展中起重要作用。
