[Hepatic fibrosis and progesterone]. / Fibrosis hepática y progesterona.

ABSTRACT

To study the progesterone (Prog.) action on the hepatic fibrosis, we produced fibrosis on 55 New Zealand male rabbits, by oral ingestion of carbon tetrachloride (Cl4C) and ethanol. They developed it in six months. All the animals received the toxic. A group of these animals also received the Prog since the onset (0.66 mg/3 times a week, IM) and the rest received it 180 days after the beginning of the experiment. We could see in the biopsies of the animals who received Prog since the beginning or after 180 days protection of the hepatocytes, no vacuolization of the cell, no inflammatory infiltrate, no fat metamorphosis, very thin fibrous hands. If one of these alterations had appeared with the toxic, the Prog action would have diminished it gradually until its disappearance. Between the groups who received only toxic and the groups that received th Prog (at the beginning or deferred), the laboratory results showed a high significative difference (p less than o.01) especially in the transferases (ASAT-ALAT) in the 60-180 days period. The Prog in the fibroblasts culture and in the treatment of desmoid tumours, on operative adhesions, destroy the fibroblasts and for this action diminished the volume of the tumour and the adhesions. Perhaps the incomplete resolution of the cirrhosis (though the hands of fibrosis diminished considerably) could be explained by the activity of another kind of fibroblast (the myofibroblast), which provokes the retraction of cirrhotic hepatic tissue.