Figure 4

Effect of the combined treatment on the morphological structure of liver tissues in aged septic rats. Rats were sham operated or subjected to CLP with injection of vehicle (normal saline) or GG-2 (80 nmol/kg of ghrelin and 50 µg/kg of GH) at 5 h after CLP. The liver tissues were harvested at 20 h after CLP. Sections of liver tissues were stained with H&E and examined under light microscopy. (A) Representative images of the stained liver tissues are shown. Sham tissues have normal architecture, whereas the vehicle group shows hepatocytes vacuolization, cell necrosis and inflammatory cell infiltration (arrows). The treatment of GG-2 markedly maintains the integrity of the liver structure. Original magnification 200×. (B) Histologic injury scores of the liver in different groups were quantified as described in Materials and Methods. Data are expressed as mean ± SE (n = 5–7 per group). *P < 0.05 versus sham and ^#P < 0.05 versus vehicle.