Bratislava Medical Journal Vol.116, No.10, p.627–631, 2015

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate antioxidant and cytoprotective effects of iloprost and Vitamin C in a distant organ after abdominal aorta ischemia–reperfusion injury.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: Twenty-eight New Zealand rabbits weighing 2,400–2,800 g were used for this study. The rabbits were divided into four equal groups. These groups are control group, sham group, iloprost group, and iloprost + vitamin C group. Suprarenal aorta was occluded with a vascular clamp. Following 30 minutes of ischemia, the vascular clamp was removed. Rabbits in group 3 received 10 ng/kg/min iloprost and those in group 4 received 10 ng/kg/min iloprost and 10 mg/kg vitamin C. At the end of the reperfusion period, the rabbits were sacrificed by a high intraperitoneal dose of xylazine + ketamine injection. Myocardial tissue samples were taken for electron microscopic analysis. We evaluated SOD, MDA and catalase in myocardial tissue samples.
RESULTS:

Iloprost and iloprost + vitamin C groups significantly reduced the oxidative stress markers in tissue samples (p < 0.05) and significantly decreased the myofibrillar injury and mitochondrial morphology changes in the myocardial tissue as shown with electron microscopy (p < 0.05).

Myocardial edema was significantly alleviated by iloprost and iloprost + vitamin C administration (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: This study clearly showed that myocardial injury and edema occurred after ischemia–reperfusion of abdominal aorta and that groups administered with iloprost and iloprost + vitamin C showed an attenuation of ischemia–reperfusion injury in distant organs (Tab. 3, Fig. 4, Ref. 30).