Protective Effect of L-arginine on Liver Ischemia-reperfusion Injury of Rat

Objective To explore the protective effect of L-arginin(L-Arg) on liver ischemia-reperfusion(I/R) injury and its possible mechanism in rats.Methods Eighteen healthy male SD rats were randomly divided into 3 groups.Group 1 was served as the sham operated control.Rats in group 2 and group 3 were pretreated with saline(1 ml) and L-Arg(300 mg/kg) via the dorsal penis vein respectively,and then,they were subjected to 45 min lobar,rather than total hepatic ischemia and 60 min reperfusion.Blood samples(2 ml) were drawn from inferior vena cava for biochemistry tests,such as ALT,AST and LDH.Lesion liver lobes were excised for histological examination and test of SOD,MDA,XOD,NO and NOS.Results Rats in group 2 showed significantly higher ALT,AST,LDH,MDA,XOD,iNOS levels and lower SOD,NO levels than group 1.ALT,AST,LDH,MDA and XOD were decreaed while SOD,NO and eNOS increased in group 3 compared with those in group 2(P0.05).The L-Arg administration significantly reduced the hepatic lesions.Conclusion L-Arg has a protective effect on liver I/R injury in rats.NO and different isoforms of NOS may be involved in this process.