Clinical usefulness of edaravone for acute liver injury

Background and Aims: Edaravone, a newly synthesized radical scavenger, has shown an excellent effect on treating stroke patients. The effect of edaravone on carbon tetrachloride (CCl₄)-induced acute liver injury was examined. Methods: Six rats were injected with CCl₄ alone and six rats were intravenously injected with edaravone immediately after and 3 h after injection of CCl₄. Another six rats were injected with olive oil alone. The animals were killed at 24 h after the CCl₄ injection. Results: Injection of CCl₄ was followed by a marked increase in serum alanine aminotranferase (ALT) level (CCl₄, 1630.6 ± 606.8 IU/L; olive oil, 21.0 ± 2.6 IU/L; P < 0.001), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) level (CCl₄, 5068.0 ± 2956.4 IU/L; olive oil, 203.6 ± 30.5 IU/L; P < 0.005), and total bilirubin (TB) level (CCl₄, 0.88 ± 0.48 mg/dL; olive oil, 0.37 ± 0.05 mg/dL; P < 0.01), whereas in the edaravone-treated rats, the ALT (119.4 ± 113.5 IU/L, P < 0.001), LDH (369.7 ± 288.2 IU/L, P < 0.005), and TB values (0.29 ± 0.16 mg/dL, P < 0.01) were significantly decreased. Histological examination of the liver by hematoxylin and eosin and oil red O staining showed a marked reduction of steatosis in the CCl₄ and edaravone-treated rats compared with the CCl₄-injected rats. Significant inhibition of hepatocytic apoptosis was demonstrated by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated UTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) method in the edaravone-treated rats. Conclusions: These results suggest that edaravone has a marked preventive effect on oxidative stress-induced acute liver injury.