The Effects of Glucocorticoid and alpha-Lipoic Acid on Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury.

Lee, Sang Soon; Chung, Yoon Jae; Sohn, Byung Kyu; Kim, Hyung Geon; Park, Seong Ha

Original Article

Journal of the Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons 2002;29(3):205-210.
Published online May 1, 2002.

The Effects of Glucocorticoid and alpha-Lipoic Acid on Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury.

Sang Soon Lee, Yoon Jae Chung, Byung Kyu Sohn, Hyung Geon Kim, Seong Ha Park

¹Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Dankook University, College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. prslee@hananet.net
²Department of Pharmacology, Dankook University, College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
³Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Korea University, College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

Abstract

During revascularization after ischemia, oxygen free radicals and cytotoxic enzymes are released and they have a role in pathogenesis of ischemia-reperfusion injury. Glucocorticoid decreases oxygen free radical formation by inhibition of arachidonic acid metabolism, and alpha-lipoic acid scavenges nitric oxide(NO) with inhibition of hydroxy radical formation. Author investigated the role of glucocorticoid and alpha-lipoic acid to decrease ischemia reperfusion injury in 24 anesthetized rats (normal saline-injected, n= 8; dexamethasone-injected, n=8; alpha-lipoic acid-injected, n= 8), subjecting a soleus muscle to 4 hours of tourniquet ischemia followed by 2 hours of reperfusion, and evaluated the concentration of NO, tissue edema, and neutrophil count of rat skeletal muscle as a indicator of tissue damage by ischemia- reperfusion injury. We obtained the results that glucocorticoid and alpha-lipoic acid treatment decreased the increase of NO concentration, tissue edema, and neutrophil count significantly. These results support that pretreatment with glucocorticoid or alpha-lipoic acid has a beneficial effect on the preventive management of ischemia-reperfusion injury.

Keywords: Ischemia-reperfusion injury; Glucocorticoid; alpha-Lipoic acid