Temporal expression of hepatic inducible nitric oxide synthase in liver cirrhosis

Table 1 Liver function tests and NO levels of rats at different time points after operation (mean±SD).

	Sham-operated	BDL-3d	BDL-1 wk	BDL-2 wk	BDL-3 wk	BDL-4 wk
Bilirubin (mmol/L)	2.0±0.0	113.0±7.1	80.0±30.5	60.3±5.9	96.3±14.8	119.4±35.7
ALT (U/L)	61.9±10.1	539.5±150.6	102.7±23.8	109.3±33.2	95.0±11.8	134.8±23.3
AST (U/L)	74.0±26.1	691.5±116.7	222.3±84.9	296.0±127.0	233.3±44.1	431.7±91.8
NO (mmol/L)	7.3±0.2	8.6±0.3	6.9±0.4	8.0±0.7	7.4±0.9	10.5±0.4

Table 2 Correlation analysis of NOS activity, NO levels, liver function and histology index.

	NO	AST/ALT	Bilirubin	Total NOS activity	iNOS activity	Histology score
NO		0.4	0.61a	0.27	0.42	0.47
AST/ALT	0.14		0.19	0.56a	0.38	0.67b
Bilirubin	0.017	0.51		0.23	0.53a	0.2
Total NOS activity	0.34	0.03	0.41		0.86b	0.90b
iNOS activity	0.12	0.17	0.04	0		0.77b
Histology score	0.08	0.006	0.47	0	0.001

Above diagonal, Pearson correlation; Below diagonal, P value.

^aP<0.05;

^bP<0.01.