Why could prednisolone suppress the hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury?
Hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury is a serious complication but unavoidable problem in liver surgery including liver transplantation and hepatic resection. The most important consequence of this pathological process is multiple organ failure with a high mortality rate. Steroid therapy suppresses liver injury by a variety of mechanisms, including increased tissue blood flow and suppression of oxygen free radicals, arachidonic acid derivatives, lysosomal proteases (cathepsins) and cytokine production. However, the exact intracellular mechanisms of steroid action on hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury remains unknown. A research article to be published on 21 July 2008, in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. This research team was led by Prof. Meng Wang from Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital of Shanghai. The hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury model was performed through clamped the left lateral and median lobes of rat liver (68%) for 60 minutes and follow
