Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 27, 2026
Establishment and Validation of a Rat Model of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Associated with Pulmonary Fibrosis
Published on: May 23, 2025
[Hepatopulmonary syndrome-related changes in D-dimer, prothrombin time, fibrinogen, CD4 and CD8 in a rat model
Yi Zheng1, Weiping Zheng, Jun Liang
1Department of Gastroenterology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji University of Medicine, Shanghai 200065, China.
Objective:
To determine the changes in levels of D-dimer, prothrombin time (PT), fibrinogen (Fib), CD4 and CD8 in relation to hepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS) by using a rat model system and to assess the association with pathologic changes in lung.
Methods:
Forty male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into equal groups for modeling of cirrhosis and HPS. The two groups were assessed by blood gas analysis, standard biochemical tests to measure D-dimer, PT, Fib, CD4 and CD8, and pathological examination of lung tissues.
Results:
The HPS rats showed significantly lower PaO2 than the cirrhosis rats (58.20+/-3.19 mmHg vs. 85.00+/-2.53 mmHg, P = 0.000). The HPS rats showed significantly higher levels of D-dimer, Fib and CD8 than the cirrhosis rats (0.39+/-0.09 mg/ml vs. 0.25+/-0.05 mg/ml, P = 0.000; 1.77+/-0.10 g/L vs. and 1.49+/-0.09 g/L, P = 0.010; 32.32+/-4.45/mm3 vs. 20.13+/-6.09/mm3, P = 0.014). The HPS rats showed significantly lower levels of PT, CD4 and CD4/CD8 than the cirrhosis rats (14.86+/-1.04 s vs. 16.23+/-0.75 s, P = 0.036; 20.45+/-3.86/mm3 vs. 26.75+/-5.32/mm3, P = 0.000; 0.64+/-0.09 vs. 1.32+/-0.13, P = 0.000). The lung tissues of the HPS rats showed microthrombosis in pulmonary vessels, which were not observed in lung tissues of the cirrhosis rats.
Conclusion:
HPS-related differential levels of D-dimer, PT, Fib, CD4, CD8 and CD4/CD8 may represent a biomarker profile suggestive of incidence of thromboembolism in lung.
