Effect of postischemic reperfusion on microcirculation and lipid metabolism of skeletal muscle

To study the effect of ischemia reperfusion injury on microvascular reactivity and tissue metabolism in skeletal muscle, a Sprague‐Dawley rat cremaster muscle was prepared as a tourniquet ischemia model and subjected to 2 hr ischemia followed by 1 hr reperfusion to simulate the timing of ischemia during microvascular surgery. The dose‐response curve of arteriolar reactivity to norepinephrine, lipid peroxidation, and ultrastructure of capillaries was determined in both the control and postischemic reperfusion stages. Judging from the results, we summarize our observations as follows: (1) Postischemic reperfusion significantly increased arteriolar reactivity to norepinephrine, in which the EC50 for vasoconstriction decreased in all three orders of arterioles. These results suggest that reperfusion could have impaired the vasodilation control mechanism, possibly being endothelium dependent. (2) Lipid peroxidation increased sixfold in the reperfusion group, suggesting that oxygen free radicals have produced significant tissue damage under the created conditions. (3) Significant endothelial damage in the capillaries shown by electron microscope observation supports these studies, indicating that ischemia/reperfusion in clinically transplanted skeletal muscles could cause significant damage to the tissue microcirculation both physiologically and metabolically. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.