Effects of hindlimb ischemic preconditioning on apoptosis following lung ischemia-reperfusion injury in rabbit

Objective To investigate the effects of limb ischemic preconditioning on apoptosis and Bcl-2/Bax following ischemia-reperfusion injury(IRI) of rabbit lung.Methods Eighteen Japanese long ear rabbits were allocated randomly and evenly into three groups of sham group(S),ischemia/reperfusion group(I-R),limb ischemic preconditioning group(R).Left lung in situ I-R animal model was established.The TdT mediated dUTP nick end labeling(TUNEL) method was used to observe the apoptosis index(AI) at 3 h after reperfusion.The expressions of Bcl-2 and Bax protein in the lung tissue were detected by Western blotting method.Results Compared with sham group,AI and Bax content increased significantly(P0.01),while Bcl-2 decreased significantly(P0.01),and Bcl-2/Bax decreased(P0.05).The AI and Bax of L group decreased significantly compared with I-R group(P0.01),while the Bcl-2 and Bcl-2/Bax ratio increased in L group compared with I-R group(P0.01).Conclusion Limb ischemic preconditioning provides a protective effect against ischemia-reperfusion injury of lung by up-regulating the Bcl-2 protein expression,decreasing the Bax protein expression and increasing the Bcl-2/Bax ratio.