Suprahepatic vena cava manipulative bleeding alleviates hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats

Background. Little is known about time course and peak level of reactive oxygen species in suprahepatic vena cava after liver ischemia-reperfusion. Objective. To determine time course and peak level of reactive oxygen species in suprahepatic vena cava after liver ischemia-reperfusion. To focus on the effects of suprahepatic vena cava manipulative bleeding on the hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury in rat model. Methods. In experiment Part 1, blood was taken from suprahepatic vena cava and infrahepatic vena cava for malondialdehyde detection at different time points after reperfusion. Furthermore, we treated the experimental rats in Part 11 by suprahepatic vena cava manipulative bleeding or infrahepatic vena cava manipulative bleeding at 10 min after reperfusion. Results. In experiment Part 1, malondialdehyde concentration in suprahepatic vena cava elevated obviously with time and peaked at 10 min after reperfusion. The numbers of accumulated polymorphonuclear neutrophils was significantly increased in ischemia-reperfusion group from 10 min after reperfusion, compared with sham-operated group. In Part II, 2% of body weight suprahepatic vena cava manipulative bleeding with blood transfusion at 10 min after reperfusion significantly decreased circulating malondialdehyde, tumour necrosis factor-a, endothelin-I, hyaluronic acid, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase levels and polymorphonuclear neutrophil infiltrations in the liver. The 7-day survival rate of this group was 68.75% (11/16) which was significantly higher than other groups. Conclusions. We provided the first evidence that 2% of body weight suprahepatic vena cava manipulative bleeding with blood transfusion at 10 min after reperfusion significantly prevented liver ischemia-reperfusion injury. (c) 2007 Editrice Gastroenterologica Italiana S.r.l. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.