Ex vivo evidence of platelet activating factor on ischemic liver injury

Recently, platelet activating factor has attracted a lot of research interest due to its involvement in ischemia-reperfusion injury including ischemic liver injury. However, due to its propagating effect to cause systemic hypotension, the direct effect of platelet activating factor on the liver could not be demonstrated easily. In order to avoid the interference of other factors in vivo, ex vivo isolated rat liver perfusion system was applied in this study. Administration of platelet activating factor as high as 10(-7)M, which caused shock and death through intravenous injection, did not exacerbate ischemic injury of 30 or 60 mins ischemia with the perfusion model. These results show that platelet activating factor, unlike it dose in vivo, neither hurts hepatocyte nor exacerbates ischemic liver injury directly. It is suggested that the effect of platelet activating factor on ischemic liver injury may be operated through other factors, which are present with intact circulatory system and blood components, to exacerbate the ischemia-reperfusion injury on liver.