Effect of postconditioning and atorvastatin in preventing remote intestinal reperfusion injury

Abstract

ObjectiveTo evaluate the capacity of ischemic postconditioning and atorvastatin in prevent or minimize reperfusion injury in small bowel of rats subjected to ischemia and reperfusion by abdominal aorta clamping. Methods41 Wistar norvegic rats were distributed into 5 groups: ischemia and reperfusion, ischemic postconditioning, postconditioning+statin, statin and Sham. After anesthesia, laparotomy and dissection of the infra-renal abdominal aorta were performed; except the Sham group, all others were subjected to aorta clamping for 70min (ischemia) and withdrawal of clamp for 70min (reperfusion). In the IPC and IPC+S groups, four cycles of postconditioning were performed between the phases of ischemia and reperfusion lasting 30s each. In IPC+S and S groups, 3.4mg/day of atorvastatin was given for seven days per gavage; 1cm of the ileum were removed for histological study and the results were subjected to statistical treatment considering significant p<0.05. ResultsThe average of intestinal lesion was 2 in the I/R group, 0.66 in the IPC group, 0 in the IPC+S group, 0 in the S group, and 0 in the SHAM group. ConclusionThe ischemic postconditioning and atorvastatin were capable of minimizing intestinal reperfusion injury, either alone or in combination.