Rat model of cholelithiasis with human gallstones implanted in cholestasis-induced virtual gallbladder.

World J Methodol

Marlein Miranda Cona, Yewei Liu, Ting Yin, Yuanbo Feng, Feng Chen, Stefaan Mulier, Raymond Oyen, Yicheng Ni, Department of Imaging and Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Biomedical Sciences Group, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.

Published: June 2016

AI Article Synopsis

  • Developed a rat model to study human gallstones by causing bile duct obstruction, allowing observation of gallstone formation through imaging techniques.
  • Surgeries performed on 16 rats showed dilation of the common bile duct, with varying levels of jaundice and bilirubin levels over 28 days.
  • Model proved to be safe and reliable, using human gallstones, paving the way for future research on treatment methods for gallstones.

Article Abstract

Aim: To facilitate translational research on cholelithiasis, we have developed a rat model of human gallstones by exploiting the unique biliopancreatic features of this species.

Methods: Under anesthesia, 16 adult rats of equal genders underwent two times of abdominal surgery. First, their common bile duct (CBD) was ligated to cause cholestasis by total biliary obstruction (TBO). On day 0, 1, 3, 7, 14, 21 and 28 after TBO, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was conducted to monitor the dilatation of the CBD, and blood was sampled to analyze total serum bilirubin (TSB). Secondly, on day 30, the abdomen was re-opened and gallstone(s) collected from human patients were implanted in the dilated CBD as a virtual gallbladder (VGB), which was closed by suture ligation. This rat cholelithiasis model was examined by MRI, clinical observation, microcholangiography and histology.

Results: All rats survived two laparotomies. After ligation, the CBD was dilated to a stable size of 4 to 30 mm in diameter on day 21-28, which became a VGB. The rats initially showed signs of jaundice that diminished over time, which paralleled with the evolving TSB levels from 0.6 ± 0.3 mg/dL before ligation, through a peak of 10.9 ± 1.9 mg/dL on day 14, until a nearly normalized value after day 28. The dilated CBD with thickened wall allowed an incision for implantation of human gallstones of 1-10 mm in diameter. The rat cholelithiasis was proven by in vivo MRI and postmortem microcholangiography and histomorphology.

Conclusion: A rat model cholelithiasis with human gallstones has been established, which proves feasible, safe, reliable, nontoxic and cost-effective. Given the gallstones of human origin, applications of this model may be of help in translational research such as optical detection and lysis of gallstones by systemic drug administration.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4921946PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.5662/wjm.v6.i2.154DOI Listing

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