The effects of profound hypothermia on pancreas ischemic injury: a new experimental model

Pancreatic ischemia-reperfusion (IR) has a key role in pancreas surgery and transplantation. Most experimental models evaluate the normothermic phase of the IR. We proposed a hypothermic model of pancreas IR to evaluate the benefic effects of the cold ischemic phase.

We performed a reproducible model of hypothermic pancreatic IR. The ischemia was induced in the pancreatic tail portion (1-hour ischemia, 4-hour reperfusion) in 36 Wistar rats. They are divided in 3 groups as follows: group 1 (control), sham; group 2, normothermic IR; and group 3, hypothermic IR. In group 3, the temperature was maintained as close to 4.5°C. After reperfusion, serum amylase and lipase levels, inflammatory mediators (tumor necrosis factor α, interleukin 6), and pancreas histology were evaluated.

In pancreatic IR groups, amylase, cytokines, and histological damage were significantly increased when compared with group 1. In the group 3, we observed a significant decrease in tumor necrosis factor α (P = 0.004) and interleukin 6 (P = 0.001) when compared with group 2. We did not observe significant difference in amylase (P = 0.867), lipase (P = 0.993), and histology (P = 0.201).

In our experimental model, we reproduced the cold phase of pancreas IR, and the pancreas hypothermia reduced the inflammatory mediators after reperfusion.