Objective To investigate the feasibility and method of Sonazoid contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) for diagnosis of liver fibrosis/cirrhosis. Methods Liver cirrhosis was induced by oral administration of carbon tetrachloride to male wistar rats. Both conventional ultrasound and Sonazoid-CEUS were applied to each rat, respectively. Qualitative and quantitive analysis were performed, and the diagnostic performance of Sonazoid-CEUS on diagnosis of liver fibrosis/cirrhosis were analyzed. Results Twenty four rats were divided into three groups as group 1 (normal liver, n =5),group 2(fibrotic liver, n =6) and group 3 (cirrhotic liver, n =13). The Kupffer phase findings of Sonazoid-CEUS were as following: the enhancement level of normal liver was significantly higher than those of fibrotic/cirrhotic liver, and the difference between liver and spleen of fibrotic/cirrhotic liver was larger than those of normal liver with significant difference. Sonazoid-CEUS showed higher performance on diagnosis of liver fibrosis/cirrhosis than conventional US, with the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy were 84.2％, 100％ and 87.5％,respectively. The quantification data of liver and spleen further proved the characteristic findings of normal liver,fibrotic liver and cirrhotic liver in Kupffer phase. Conclusions Decrease of liver enhancement and increase of the difference between spleen and liver during Sonazoid-CEUS Kupffer phase are the typical findings of liver fibrosis/cirrhosis.

AIM:To investigate the optimal time of blood collection and the best concentration of Ganlong capsule(GLC)-containing serum for steatohepatitis.METHODS:Sixty C57BL/6J mice were gavaged with GLC at a dose of 90 mg/kg body weight,twice a day for 7 days.Control mice were administered the same volume of 0.9%saline.After 0.5,1,2 and 4 h from the last gavage,blood was collected to prepare GLC-containing serum.The LC-MS/MS was used to detect the inosine content of blank and drug-containing serum at different blood collection times to determine the optimal time.Subsequently,NCTC1469 cells stimulated with palmitic acid(PA)were treated with different concentrations of the GLC-containing serum.Nile Red staining was used to detect lipid droplet formation,and RT-qPCR was employed to as-sess the expression of intracellular fatty acid synthesis(Fabp1,Scd1)and fatty acid β-oxidation gene(Pparα).RE-SULTS:(1)LC-MS/MS detection revealed that the inosine concentration peaked 2 h after the last administration.(2)Nile red staining demonstrated that the GLC-containing serum exerted a dose-dependent decreasing trend of lipid droplets in hepatocytes induced by PA.(3)GLC-containing serum significantly downregulated the mRNA expression levels of lipo-genesis-genes(Fabp1 and Scd1)with a dose-dependent decreasing trend in the PA-induced NCTC1469 cells.The mRNA expression of genes associated with fatty acid β-oxidation(Pparα)were upregulated with a dose-dependent increasing trend.CONCLUSION:The 10%GLC-containing serum collected 2 hours after the last administration in mice has the best therapeutic effect for steatohepatitis.