Research progress on hepatic encephalopathy: animal models and disease mechanisms

Abstract

Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a hepatic disease with neuronal confusion, altered level of consciousness, and coma as a result of severe liver damage/failure. HE is with complicated pathological mechanisms and high mortality, which seriously affects patients' daily life. Roughly, it can be divided into three types, A, B and C. Type A is acute HE and Types B and C are chronic. At present, the pathogenesis of HE is still unclear. In addition, there is no specific clinical treatment. Therefore, establishing appropriate HE animal model is vital for the mechanistic study of the disease and the development of clinical therapy. This review makes a summary on the recent progress of HE animal model establishment and current study of its underlying molecular mechanisms.