@article{oai:niigata-u.repo.nii.ac.jp:00006306, author = {SATO, Yoshinobu and TAKAGI, Kentaro and HATAKEYAMA, Katsuyoshi}, issue = {2}, journal = {Acta medica et biologica, Acta medica et biologica}, month = {Jun}, note = {Preoperative management in cirrhotic patients is extremely important to the liver surgeon in terms of preventing postoperative organ failure and infection. In this study we investigated the effects of OK432,a streptococcal preparation that is a wellknown immunopotentiator for macrophages, in modulating the liver function of patients (9 patients) with hepatocellular carcinoma accompanied with liver cirrhosis above 20% in ICG-R15. The preoperative administration of OK432 for the patients resulted in a significant improvement in the hyaluronic acid levels (before treatment vs after treatment : 293.1±111.6 ng/ml vs 145.6±80.0 ng/ml, p=0.0008) and natural killer (NK) cell activity (before treatment vs after treatment : 24.4±21.6% vs 35.5±15.1%, p=0.0166) as well as increases in levels of HLA-DR-, CD56-, CD8-, and TCR γδ-positive lymphocytes in peripheral blood--although these data were not statistically significant. The period before the removal of the abdominal drain (10.9±16.6 days vs 26.8±11.4 days), the length of hospitalization (33.2±13.2 days vs 39.4±13.8 days, and the incidence of episodes of postoperative complications (33.3% (3/9,3 episodes) vs 66.7% (10/15,12 episodes)) in the OK432-treated group were all more favorable than those in the OK432-untreated group (15 patients). These findings suggest that the preoperative administration of OK432 in cirrhotic patients may be useful for preventing postoperative liver failure and infection through inhibition of excessive immunological reactions of Kupffer cells, the enhancement of sinusoidal endothelial cell (SEC) function, and the activation of NK cells and NKT cells.}, pages = {39--46}, title = {Improvement in Host Immunity and a Decrease in Morbidity by the Preoperative Administration of OK432 in Cirrhotic Patients with HCC}, volume = {49}, year = {2001} }