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Updated: May 8, 2026
A Rat Lung Transplantation Model of Warm Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury: Optimizations to Improve Outcomes
Published on: October 28, 2021
Pretreatment with sildenafil alleviates early lung ischemia-reperfusion injury in a rat model
Pin-Keng Shih1, Chih-Mei Cheng, Hsien-Pin Li
1Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
Background:
Lung ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury plays an important role in lung transplantation. Less well known is the role of sildenafil in lung I/R injury; therefore, we attempted to determine whether sildenafil could alleviate lung apoptosis and tissue injury in a rat model.
Methods:
Forty male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomized into four groups: saline + sham, saline + I/R, sildenafil + sham, and sildenafil + I/R groups. Three hours before the operation, each rat received normal saline or sildenafil (10 mg/kg) by lavage. The animals designed to I/R injury were subjected to 2 h of ischemia induced by occlusion of left pulmonary artery, veins, and bronchus, followed by reperfusion for 2 h. The lung tissue was harvested for the analysis of the expression of Bax, Bcl-2, p53, caspase 3, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, interleukin (IL)-6, and wet/dry (W/D) weight ratio.
Results:
Compared with the saline + sham group, the saline + I/R group had significant increases in Bax, p53, Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, caspase 3, IL-6, TNF-α, and W/D weight ratio but a decrease in Bcl-2 (P < 0.05). Compared with the saline + I/R group, sildenafil + I/R group had significant decreases in Bax, p53, Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, caspase 3, IL-6, TNF-α level, and W/D weight ratio but an increase in Bcl-2 expression (P < 0.05). Compared with the sildenafil + sham group, there were significant increases in p53 and TNF-α expression in the sildenafil + I/R group (P < 0.05).
Conclusions:
Pretreatment with sildenafil alleviates lung apoptosis and tissue injury in a rat model.
