Protection against Warm Ischemia Injury by L-Arginine

Objective To investigate the influence of different warm ischemia time on serum TNFα of recipients rats and protection against warm ischemia injury by L-Arginine. Methods 104 wistar rats were randomly divided into 6 groups: normal control group (Group N,n=8), control group C 1, C 2, C 3, experimental group E 1, E 2, E 3. For group C 1 and E 1, group C 2 and E 2, group C 3 and E 3, the warm ischemia time was 0, 30, and 45 min, respectively , Liver grafts were flushed with and preserved in Euro-collins solution.Donors and recipients of each experimental control group were treated with normal saline. Then transplantation was performed. At 1, 3, and 24h after portal vein reperfusion, blood samples were obtained todetermine the levels of TNFα , ALT, AST for electronscopy observation. Results At 1h after portal vein reperfusion, the levels of TNFα in all experiment group and all control group were significantly higher than that in normal control group after PV reperfusion(P0.05); at 1h, 3h, the levels of TNFα in experiment group were significantly lower than that in corresponding control group(P0.05),The levels of TNFα in group C 3 and C 2 were significantly higher than that in group C 1 (P0.05), and the levels of TNFα in group C 3 were significantly higher than that in group C 2 (P0.05). Pathological changes in all experiment group were significantly milder than that in corresponding experimental control groups. Conclusion TNFα play an important role in the development of warm ischemia reperfusion injury of liver graft. L-Arg could attenuate liver graft injury by decreasing production of TNFα.