Effect of picroside II on hind limb ischemia reperfusion injury in rats

Many structural and functional damages are observed in cells and tissues after reperfusion of previously viable ischemic tissues. Acute ischemia reperfusion (I/R) injury of lower extremities occurs especially when a temporary cross-clamp is applied to the abdominal aorta during aortic surgery. Research regarding the treatment of I/R injury has been increasing day-by-day. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of picroside II on skeletal muscle of rats experiencing simulated I/R.

Twenty-four male Wistar albino rats weighing between 210 and 300 g were used in this study. Rats were randomly divided into 4 groups of 6 rats each (control, I/R, control + picroside II, and I/R + picroside II). The infrarenal section of the abdominal aorta was occluded with an atraumatic microvascular clamp in I/R group. The clamp was removed after 120 minutes and reperfusion was provided for a further 120 minutes. Picroside II (10 mg kg^-1) was administered intraperitoneally to the animals in control + picroside II and I/R + picroside II groups. At the end of the study, skeletal muscle tissue was obtained for the determination of total oxidant status (TOS) and total antioxidant status (TAS) levels. Apoptosis was evaluated by TUNEL experiment.

TOS levels were significantly higher in I/R group than that of control and I/R + picroside II groups (P=0.014, P=0.005, respectively). TAS levels were significantly higher in I/R group than that of control and I/R + picroside II groups (P=0.007 P=0.005, respectively). TUNEL assay revealed that picroside II reduced cell necrosis.

The results of this study demonstrated that picroside II plays a critical role to prevent I/R injury. Even though our results were found to be satisfactory, it should be encouraging to those who want to conduct future research on this topic.