Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Feb 14, 2015; 21(6): 1775-1783
Published online Feb 14, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i6.1775
Nitrite, a novel method to decrease ischemia/reperfusion injury in the rat liver
Bergthor Björnsson, Linda Bojmar, Hans Olsson, Tommy Sundqvist, Per Sandström
Bergthor Björnsson, Per Sandström, Department of Surgery, County Council of Östergötland, 581 85 Linköping, Sweden
Bergthor Björnsson, Linda Bojmar, Tommy Sundqvist, Per Sandström, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University, 581 85 Linköping, Sweden
Hans Olsson, Department of Pathology, County Council of Östergötland, 581 85 Linköping, Sweden
Author contributions: Björnsson B, Sundqvist T and Sandström P designed the research; Björnsson B and Bojmar L performed the research; Björnsson B, Bojmar L, Olsson H, Sundqvist T and Sandström P analyzed the data; and Björnsson B, Bojmar L, Olsson H, Sundqvist T and Sandström P wrote the paper.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Bergthor Björnsson, MD, Department of Surgery, County Council of Östergötland, Garnisonsvägen, 581 85 Linköping, Sweden. bergthor.bjornsson@lio.se
Telephone: +46-10-1030000 Fax: +46-10-1033570
Received: June 9, 2014
Peer-review started: June 10, 2014
First decision: August 6, 2014
Revised: August 24, 2014
Accepted: October 15, 2014
Article in press: October 15, 2014
Published online: February 14, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: Nitric oxide has an important protective effect against liver ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI), although large levels of the substance may increase IRI. The total levels of nitrite and nitrate decrease in the liver tissue during ischemia. Because nitrite can be reduced to nitric oxide (NO) in an acidic environment, this decrease may be due to NO formation. In this study, the administration of nitrite before liver ischemia/reperfusion reduced the IRI per evaluation with transaminases, liver microdialysis and histology.