Elsevier

Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery

Volume 3, Issue 2, March–April 1999, Pages 162-166
Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery

Characterization and reduction of ischemia/reperfusion injury after experimental pancreas transplantation,☆☆

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1091-255X(99)80027-4Get rights and content

Abstract

Reperfusion injury after pancreas transplantation is a cause of early graft pancreatitis. The aim of this study was to quantify pancreatic microcirculation after pancreas transplantation in correlation with cold ischemia time. In a second step the effect of N-acetylcysteine on reperfusion damage was tested. Pancreas transplantation was performed in three different groups of male Lewis rats. Groups 1 and 2 received no special treatment. Cold ischemia time was 1.5 hours in group 1 and 16 hours in groups 2 and 3. In group 3 donor and recipient were both treated with N-acetylcysteine (300 mg/kg) 1.5 hours after reperfusion graft microcirculation was quantified by means of intravital microscopy. Rhodamine-labeled leukocytes, fluoroscein isothiocyanate—labeled erythrocytes, and fluoroscein isothiocyanate—albumin were used as fluorochromes. After a cold ischemia time of 16 hours, functional capillary density, erythrocyte velocity, and leukocyte-endothelium interaction were reduced significantly compared to a cold ischemia time of 1.5 hours (P <0.05). After 16 hours of cold ischemia, treatment with N-acetylcysteine improved all of these parameters (P ≤0.05). Ischemia/reperfusion injury after experimental pancreas transplantation is characterized by a disturbance of the pancreatic microcirculation exhibiting a correlation with the duration of cold ischemia. Treatment of donor and recipient with N-acetylcysteine resulted in prevention of cold ischemia—induced microcirculatory disturbance.

Keywords

Experimental pancreas transplantation
ischemia
reperfusion
therapy
intravital microscopy

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Supported by “Forschungsschwerpunkt Transplantation,” Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

☆☆

Presented at the Thirty-Ninth Annual Meeting of The Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, New Orleans, La., May 17–20, 1998.

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