Abstract: Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of pentoxifylline in the treatment of NASH induced by high-fat diet.Methods A nonalcoholic steatohepatitis model was prepared by feeding rats with fat-rich diet for 12 weeks, then these rats were sacrificed. NASH was confirmed by liver histologic exam, then the rats were divided into 3 groups randomly, i.e. normal control group, model group and treatment group. The model group and treatment group were given high-fat diet and the normal group was given normal diet continuously. Furthermore,the rats of treatment group were given pentoxifylline16 mg/(kg·d) for 4 weeks. At the time of 16 weeks, the rats of three groups were sacrificed. The body weight, liver index(liver/body weight ratio), serum ALT,AST,TG,TC were measured and the liver histology of rats of all groups were examined with HE, Masson and oil red stain, and hepatic inflammation score was estimated.Results The body weight and liver index of model group were greatly higher than normal groups (P<0.01), but the body weigh and liver index of treatment group were increasingly dropped (P<0.01). The difference of the serum levels of ALT and AST between model group and normal group's was significant (P<0.01). Compared with normal group, The serum levels of AST in treatment group have significant difference (P<0.05). The serum level of TC of model group was increased significantly (P<0.05), the serum levels of TC,TG of treatment group were dropped, but there was no statistical significance and liver histology was showed hepatic inflammation score descended markedly (P<0.01).Conclusion Pentoxifylline could ameliorate the hepatic inflammation of rats with steatohepatitis induced by fat-rich diet and it suggests that pentoxifylline might be effective in treating rats with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis induced by high fat feeding.

Key words: nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, pentoxifylline, rats