Ischemic post-conditioning to counteract intestinal ischemia/reperfusion injury

• Published in: World journal of gastrointestinal pathophysiology 2010-10, Vol.1 (4), p.137-143
• Main Authors: Guan, Yan-Fang, Pritts, Timothy A, Montrose, Marshall H
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acidosis; injury; Intestinal; ischemia/reperfusion; Ischemic; post-conditioning; Review; vivo
• ISSN: 2150-5330; 2150-5330
• DOI: 10.4291/wjgp.v1.i4.137

Intestinal ischemia is a severe disorder with a variety of causes.Reperfusion is a common occurrence during treatment of acute intestinal ischemia but the injury resulting from ischemia/reperfusion(IR)may lead toeven more serious complications from intestinal atrophy to multiple organ failure and death.The susceptibility of the intestine to IR-induced injury(IRI)appears from various experimental studies and clinical settings such as cardiac and major vascular surgery and organ transplantation.Where as oxygen free radicals,activation of leukocytes,failure of microvascular perfusion,cellular acidosis and disturbance of intracellular homeo-stasis have been implicated as important factors inthe pathogenesis of intestinal IRI,the mechanisms underlying this disorder are not well known.To date,increasing attention is being paid in animal studies to potential pre-and post-ischemia treatments that protect against intestinal IRI such as drug interference with IR-induced apoptosis and inflammation processes and ischemic pre-conditioning.However,better insight is needed into the molecular and cellular events associated with reperfusion-induced damage to develop effective clinical protection protocols to combat this disorder.In this respect,the use of ischemic post-conditioning in combination with experimentally prolonged acidosis blocking deleterious reperfusion actions may turn out to have particular clinical relevance.