Evidence that both cyclosporin and azathioprine prevent warm ischemia reperfusion injury to the rat liver

Katsunori Kawano*, Yang Il Kim, Masayuki Ono, Shigeru Goto, Tetsuji Kai, Michio Kobayashi

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

The present work was undertaken to study whether the immunosuppressive agents cyclosporin (CyA) and azathioprine (AZA) ameliorate hepatic injury after warm ischemia. A temporary, normothermic liver ischemia was induced in female Sprague-Dawley rats. The rats were treated with CyA (10 mg/kg per day p.o.), AZA (8 mg/kg per day p.o.), or vehicles for 4 days before surgery. Seven-day survival rates after 60 min of ischemia improved significantly with CyA (76.2%, P<0.005) and AZA (78.6%, P<0.001) treatment, compared with 43.0% for the control group. The highest levels of serum aminotransferases in the treatment groups tended to be lower than those in the control group. The peak values for the percentage of liver necrosis, an indicator of the extent of hepatic necrosis, in the animals treated with CyA (26.1%±7.2%, mean±SEM) and AZA (32.1%±5.7%) were significantly lower than in the control group (47.4%±3.7%). Lipid peroxidative damage after reperfusion, assessed as the hepatic malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration, was significantly suppressed by pretreatment with CyA and AZA. Histological findings coincided with other parameters. This study demonstrates that both AZA and CyA have beneficial effects on normothermic liver ischemia in rats. It is suggested that the diminished lipid peroxidative damage with these agents might be one of the mechanisms responsible for this.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)330-336
Number of pages7
JournalTransplant International
Volume6
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 11 1993
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Azathioprine, liver ischemia
  • Cyclosporin, liver ischemia
  • Ischemia, liver, rat
  • Liver ischemia, rat

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