Objective:  To investigate the protective effect of edaravone on ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI) in rat liver.
Methods: Sixty rats were randomly divided into experimental group and controll groups (30 in each) after establishing animal liver IRI model with partial reperfusion injury under normal temperature.Just after initiation of reperfusion and 1h later,edaravone was administered in the experiment group,and the same volume of normal saline was administered in the control group.The lipid peroxidation (LPO) hepatic enzymes and the level of TNF-α mRNA and E-selectin mRNA in plasma were measured at 0, 2, 4 h after initiation of reperfusion.We also serially quantified hepatic expression of mRNAs for TNF-α and E-selectin with RT-PCR.
Results: In the experiment group,hepatic LPO and hepatic enzyme were significantly less than that in the saline group(P＜0.05) at 2 h after initiation of reperfusion.Hepatic expression of TNF-α and E-selectin mRNA was significantly lower in the experiment group than the saline group(P＜0.05) at 2h after initiation of reperfusion.Histologically, E-selectin expression was less evident in hepatic sections in the experiment group than controll group at 2h after initiation of reperfusion.
Conclusions: Edaravone can reduce hepatic ischemia reperfusion injury,and significangly inhibit subsequent inflammation by reducing expression of inflammatory cytokines and adhesion molecules.