Polymorphonuclear leukocyte infiltration into gastric mucosa after ischemia-reperfusion

Polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) have been implicated in the pathogenesis of ischemia-reperfusion injury. The objective of this study was to investigate PMN infiltration and distribution within the gastric mucosa of rats subjected to 30 min gastric ischemia followed by reperfusion. Sections of mucosa were stained for PMN using an immunoperoxidase technique, and injury was assessed by quantitative histology. In control animals, there were 4 +/- 2 PMN/mm2 in the superficial and 9 +/- 4 PMN/mm2 in the deep mucosa. This increased significantly to 67 +/- 9 PMN/mm2 (P < 0.05) and 160 +/- 53 PMN/mm2 (P < 0.01) respectively at 15 min of reperfusion. The percentage of these PMN which were extravasated was 83 +/- 4% in the superficial mucosa and 82 +/- 4% in the deep mucosa (P < 0.001 compared with control levels of 0% in superficial and 10% in deep mucosa). Significant PMN infiltration occurred before full expression of mucosal injury and treatment of rats with anti-PMN antisera blocked reperfusion injury (treated 10.7 +/- 1.4% mucosa damaged, controls 33.5 +/- 2.4%; P < 0.001). Treatment with allopurinol (100 mg/kg) significantly reduced the number of infiltrating PMN (superficial 7 +/- 1/mm2, deep 16 +/- 2/mm2; P < 0.01) and the percentage of extravasating PMN (superficial 40 +/- 10%, deep 30 +/- 15%; P < 0.01) while also significantly reducing tissue injury (21.9 +/- 1.9% mucosa damaged, P < 0.01 compared with controls). We conclude that the immunoperoxidase staining provides a simple means of identifying PMN in histological sections. Furthermore, our results support a role for PMN in gastric ischemia-reperfusion injury.