Effects of excitatory and inhibitory of nitric oxide on Kupffer cells and volume of sinusoids in rat liver

Subject Areas : Journal of Animal Biology

Mohammad Talvari ¹ , Atarodsadat Mostafavinia ² , Parivash Davoudi ³ , Mobina Zargar ⁴ , Seyed Mohammmad Hossein Noori Mougahi ⁵

1 - Department of Anatomical Sciences & Cognitive Neuroscience, TMS.C., Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
2 - Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
3 - Anatomy department- medical sciences branch- Islamic Azad university- Tehran- Iran
4 - Department of Anatomical Sciences & Cognitive Neuroscience, TMS.C., Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
5 - Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Ahwaz Campus, Islamic Azad University, Ahwaz, Iran.

Received: 2025-05-29 Accepted : 2025-07-27 Published : 2025-08-12

Keywords: Liver, Kupffer cell, Sinusoid, Nitric Oxide, L-Arginine, L-NAME,

Abstract :

Nitric oxide (NO) is a diatomic and lipophilic molecule that is produced by the nitric oxide synthase (Nos) from L-Arginine in many organs of the body. Considering the important roles of nitric oxide in many physiological processes of the body and limited number of researches that have been done in the field of its effects on Kupffer cells and volume of sinusoids, the purpose of this study is to evaluate excitatory and inhibitory effects of Nitric Oxide on liver histology in rat. Forty female Wistar rats with average weight of 200-250 gr after pregnancy were randomly divided into 5 groups. Except the control group, the rest of the groups intraperitoneally received Normal Saline, L-Arginine, L-NAME and mixture of L-NAME and L-Arginine respectively with the same dose in the 3th, 4th and 5th days of pregnancy. Then, in 18th day of pregnancy, Rats were anesthetized and we took out the animal’s liver and examined Kupffer cells and volume of sinusoids with Hematoxylin-Eosin staining. In this study, Kupffer cells and volume of sinusoids were significantly different in L-NAME and L-Arginine groups with control group, whereas in L-NAME+Arginine group no significant difference was observed with the control group. This study showed that the combined use of L-Arginine and L-NAME can modulate the excitatory and inhibitory effects of nitric oxide on the rat liver.

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