Transcatheter arterial embolization and chemoembolization induce the production of free radicals in the normal rat liver.

Superselective transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) of the left and median lobes of the normal rat liver was performed using gelatin sponge (1.5 mg/ml). Superselective transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TAC) of the same lobes was done adding mitomycin (MMC) at a dose of 1.6 mg/ml to the embolic solution. In another group of rats MMC alone was injected intraarterially into those lobes. It was found that both embolic procedures and the arterial injection of MMC decrease the hepatic total glutathione content. Glutathione peroxidase activity and alpha-tocopherol content remained unchanged. Lipoperoxides were detected 3 and 6 h after TAC in chemoembolized and non-chemoembolized lobes. Similar findings in both injected and noninjected lobes were found after MMC injection. The TAE lobes only showed elevated lipoperoxide content 6 h after embolization, this parameter remained unchanged in the non-TAE lobes. These findings suggest that free radicals are formed after TAE, and that the addition of MMC to the embolic solution increases the oxidative attack and/or that the oxidative reactions after TAC are mainly mediated by lipid peroxidation due to the presence of MMC.