Lycopene hampers lung injury due to skeletal muscle ischemia-reperfusion in rat model.

Abstract

This study investigates lycopene's preventive efficacy in skeletal muscle ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) induced lung injury. Thirty-two rats were randomly assigned to control group, lycopene group, I/R group and I/R+lycopene group. In the lycopene and I/R+lycopene groups, the rats initially received 10mg/kg/day lycopene orally for 15 days. Then, dissection around the abdominal aorta was performed in all rats under general anesthesia. The aorta was clamped at the infrarenal level in the I/R group and I/R+lycopene group for two hours before two hours of reperfusion. The mean serum levels of malondialdehyde (53.0±20.14nmol/mL) and superoxide dismutase (1.03±0.16U/mL) were higher and lower in the I/R group than the other three groups, respectively (p<0.001). The mean serum IMA level of I/R+lycopene group (0.42±0.04 abs/u) was lower than the I/R group (0.47±0.04 abs/u) (p=0.015). The mean tissue malondialdehyde levels of I/R group (69.10±11.55nmol/mL) and I/R+lycopene group (68.36±21.17nmol/mL) were high compared to the control group (49.87±6.52nmol/mL) and lycopene group (47.82±4.44nmol/mL) (p=0.002). The mean tissue glutathione peroxidase (p<0.001) and superoxide dismutase (p=0.001) levels of I/R group (121.81±43.59nmol/mL and 25.17±8.69U/mL) were low compared to the control group (236.12±18.01nmol/mL and 46.30±5.17U/mL), lycopene group (227.52±16.92nmol/mL and 45.82±4.02U/mL), and I/R+lycopene group (176.02±24.27nmol/mL and 35.20±4.85U/mL). The histopathological analyses of I/R+lycopene group indicated less significant changes than the control group. Tissue damage in the I/R+lycopene group was less prominent than the I/R group. These findings suggest oral lycopene supplementation as a promising prevention against skeletal muscle I/R caused lung injury.