RETROGRADE OXYGEN PERSUFFLATION IN COMBINATION WITH UW SOLUTION ENHANCES ADENINE-NUCLEOTIDE CONTENTS IN ISCHEMICALLY DAMAGED RAT-KIDNEY DURING COLD-STORAGE

Retrograde oxygen persufflation (ROP) has been reported to be benefici al to kidney preservation. The purpose of this study was to investigat e whether use of ROP during cold storage (CS) with Universita of Wisco nsin (UW) solution could ameliorate energy metabolism and functional r ecovery of ischemically injured rat kidneys and, moreover, to study th e particular role of adenosine (ADO) in CS with ROP. Kidneys subjected to 30 min of warm ischemia (WI) were preserved for 24 h in 4 degrees C UW solution with or without ROP and with or without ADO. Measurement s of tissue high-energy phosphate levels showed that reduced total ade nine nucleotides (TAN) after 30 min of WI further declined during the subsequent CS. In ROP kidneys, however, TAN were less reduced, suggest ing that even during CS, TAN can still be regenerated in the injured k idneys when ROP is combined with UW solution. When UW did not contain ADO, regeneration of TAN by ROP was slightly less than in the case of UW with ADO. This indicates that the supply of molecular oxygen is a s ignificant factor in TAN resynthesis during CS. There was no statistic ally significant difference in survival rate between the ROP and CS gr oups, indicating that an improved energy status is not the sole determ inant of functional recovery. We conclude that the gaseous oxygen supp ly provided by ROP during CS in UW solution ameliorates the energy sta te of ischemically injured rat kidneys and that exogenous ADO from the UW solution contributes to the improvement of energy metabolism to a limited extent.