Original Article
Copyright ©2012 Baishideng Publishing Group Co., Limited. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 28, 2012; 18(4): 323-330
Published online Jan 28, 2012. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v18.i4.323
Liver cold preservation induce lung surfactant changes and acute lung injury in rat liver transplantation
An Jiang, Chang Liu, Feng Liu, Yu-Long Song, Quan-Yuan Li, Liang Yu, Yi Lv
An Jiang, Chang Liu, Liang Yu, Yi Lv, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710061, Shannxi Province, China
An Jiang, Department of VIP Clinic, The Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710004, Shannxi Province, China
Feng Liu, Department of Liver Transplantation, Qianfoshan Hospital, Jinan 250014, Shandong Province, China
Yu-Long Song, Department of Anesthesiology, Renmin Hospital of Shannxi Province, Xi’an 710061, Shannxi Province, China
Quan-Yuan Li, Department of Transplantation, Dongfeng Hospital, Shiyan 442008, Hubei Province, China
Author contributions: Liu C, Yu L and Lv Y designed the research; Jiang A, Liu F, Song YL and Li QY performed the research and analyzed the data; Jiang A wrote the paper.
Supported by Grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30200269; Science and technology projects in Shannxi Province, No. 2006k12-G3 (6); Science and technology projects in Xi’an city, No. SF1025 (3)
Correspondence to: Chang Liu, Professor, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Xi’an Jiaotong University, No. 277 West Yan-ta Road, Xi’an 710061, Shannxi Province, China. liuchangdoctor@163.com
Telephone: +86-029-85323900 Fax: +86-029-85263190
Received: April 2, 2011
Revised: May 28, 2011
Accepted: June 5, 2011
Published online: January 28, 2012
Abstract

AIM: To investigate the relationship between donor liver cold preservation, lung surfactant (LS) changes and acute lung injury (ALI) after liver transplantation.

METHODS: Liver transplantation models were established using male Wistar rats. Donor livers were preserved in University of Wisconsin solution at 4  °C for different lengths of time. The effect of ammonium pyrrolidinedithiocarbamate (PDTC) on ALI was also detected. All samples were harvested after 3 h reperfusion. The severity of ALI was evaluated by lung weight/body weight ratio, lung histopathological score, serum nitric oxide (NO) and endothelin (ET)-1 levels, lung tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interleukin (IL)-1β levels. Lung surfactants (LSs) were determined by micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography.

RESULTS: With extended donor liver cold preservation time (CPT), lung histopathological scores, serum ET-1 levels, lung weight/body weight ratio and the level of TNF-α and IL-1β in lung were increased significantly in the 180-min group compared with the sham group (3.16 ± 0.28 vs 1.12 ± 0.21, P < 0.001; 343.59 ± 53.97 vs 141.53 ± 48.48, P < 0.001; 0.00687 ± 0.00037 vs 0.00557 ± 0.00056, P < 0.001; 17.5 ± 3.0 vs 1.3 ± 0.3, P < 0.001; 10.8 ± 2.3 vs 1.8 ± 0.4, P < 0.001), but serum NO levels decreased remarkably (74.67 ± 10.01 vs 24.97 ± 3.18, P < 0.001). The expression of lung phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylinositol (PI) and phosphatidylserine (PS) increased when CPT was < 120 min, and decreased when CPT was > 180 min (PC: 1318.89 ± 54.79 vs 1011.18 ± 59.99, P < 0.001; PE: 1504.45 ± 119.96 vs 1340.80 ± 76.39, P = 0.0019; PI: 201.23 ± 34.82 vs 185.88 ± 17.04, P = 0.2265; PS: 300.43 ± 32.95 vs 286.55 ± 55.55, P = 0.5054). All these ALI-associated indexes could be partially reversed by PDTC treatment.

CONCLUSION: Prolonged CPT could induce or inhibit the expression of LSs at the compensation or decompensation stage, and some antioxidants (e.g., PDTC) may reverse the pathological process partially.

Keywords: Liver transplantation, Acute lung injury, Organ preservation, Lung surfactants