Objective: Hepatic ischemia reperfusion (I/R) injury is regarded as a serious concern in clinical practice. Citric acid reduces oxidative stress and inflammation during hypoxia and reoxygenation. Our objective was to investigate the protective effect of citric acid against hepatic I/R injury in rats.
Methods: We fed Sprague-Dawley rats either citric acid (100 mg/kg/d) or saline. One week later, ischemia was induced by clamping the rats' common hepatic artery and portal vein for 30 minutes. The rats were randomly divided into 3 major groups that were treated as follows: 1. the sham operated group; 2. the I/R group; and 3. the I/R-citric acid group.
Results: Compared to the sham group, the I/R group had higher expression of aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase and lower expression of catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, antioxidant, nitric oxide, and albumin. Compared to the I/R group, the I/R-citric acid group had higher expression of catalase, superoxide dismutase, antioxidants, and nitric oxide, and lower expression of aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase.
Conclusions: These results suggest that citric acid therapy has significant therapeutic potential in ischemic liver injury.
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