Renal ischemia-reperfusion injury attenuated by splenic ischemic preconditioning

To investigate the therapeutic effect of splenic ischemic preconditioning (sIPC) on renal ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury.

A total of 18 adult male Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were treated by 45 min renal ischemia and followed by 24 h reperfusion. In the sIPC group, three cycles of splenic ischemic preconditioning including 5 min ischemia and 5 min reperfusion were carried out before renal ischemia. The blood samples and kidney tissues were collected after 24 h. The levels of Cr and BUN in serum were measured to evaluate the kidney function. The morphological changes in ischemia-reperfusion kidneys were determined by hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining. The levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines including TNF-α and IL-6 in serum, and renal tissues, were measured by ELISA and Western Blotting. Furthermore, the levels of IKK-β, intra-nuclear NF-κB, p65, and IL-10 in renal tissues were also measured.

The results demonstrated that the level of Cr and BUN in the IR group were increased while decreased in the sIPC group. HE staining showed that the damage caused by renal ischemia-reperfusion was attenuated by sIPC with a low renal injury score in the sIPC group. ELISA and Western Blotting results showed that the production and secretion of TNF-α and IL-6 induced by IR were inhibited by sIPC. The expression level of IKK-β and intranuclear p65 in renal tissues were increased in the IR group while sIPC had exhibited the function of depressing the increased expression levels of IKK-β and intranuclear p65. Compared with the IR group, the expression level of IL-10 of serum and renal tissues in the sIPC group were increased.

sIPC exhibited a potent anti-inflammatory capacity to attenuated renal IR injury.