Liposomal dexamethasone attenuates tourniquet‐induced ischemia‐reperfusion injury in mouse hindlimb

Abstract

Tourniquet‐induced ischemia and subsequent release cause serious ischemia‐reperfusion (IR) injury in the skeletal muscle. Here, we observed the effect of liposomal dexamethasone (lipo‐Dex) in tourniquet‐Induced ischemic reperfusion injury (IR) in mouse hindlimb.Unilateral hindlimb of C57/BL6 mice was subjected to 3 hours of ischemia by placing a rubber band and followed different periods of reperfusion (1 week, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, and 6 weeks). Before tourniquet was released, lipo‐Dex (7 mg/kg, equivalent to amg/kg/day of Dex for 1 week) was administered via tail vein injection. After 3 hours of ischemia and different periods of reperfusion, gastrocnemius muscle showed significantly morphological and functional damages. TNFα and IL‐1β were overexpressed in the gastrocnemius muscle after 1, 2, 4, and 6 weeks of tourniquet‐induced IR. Treatment with Lipo‐Dex inhibited the elevation of TNFα and IL‐1β, improved structure of the muscle sarcolemma, reduced fragmentation of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor clusters, and promoted recovery of gastrocnemius muscle contraction.The data suggest that tourniquet‐related IR induces serious skeletal muscle inflammation and degradation. Treatment with lipo‐Dex suppresses IR‐induced inflammation and promotes recovery of skeletal muscle morphology and function from tourniquet‐induced IR injury.Support or Funding InformationUSAMRAA grant from Department of Defense, W81XWH‐17‐1‐0037(PI, Yulong Li).This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.