Effects of ischemic preconditioning on expression of connexin 43 in rat with renal ischemic reperfusion injury

Objective To observe the effects of ischemia preconditioning(IPC)on the expression of connexin 43(Cx43)in rat with renal ischemia-reperfusion(I-R)injury.Methods Thirty SD rats were randomly divided into sham operated group(S),I-R group and IPC group with 10 rats each.The kidney underwent ischemia for 60 min and reperfusion for 2 h.PMN counting and paller scoring were performed for evaluating the renal pathomorphological changes.Renal nitric oxide(NO)and nitric oxide synthase(NOS)were examined.The expression levels of renal Cx43 was detected by Western blot analysis.Results Renal NO and NOS in group IPC were significantly higher than those in group I-R.The numbers of PMN and paller scores were significantly lower in group IPC than those in group I-R.Protein expression of Cx43 in group I-R was significantly decreased as compared with that in group S.The protein expression in group IPC was significantly increased as compared with that in group I-R.Conclusion Ischemic preconditioning could protect the kidney from I-R injury,which might be through increasing the protein expression of Cx43 in renal tissues.