THE EFFECT OF ALLOPURINOL ON INTERSTITIAL PURINE METABOLISM AND TISSUE-DAMAGE IN SKELETAL-MUSCLE I-R INJURY

Objective. Many studies show that allopurinol can reduce skeletal musc le I-R (ischemia-reperfusion) injury, but the mechanism of the effect is still unclear and some studies suspect the effect. In this study, w e determined whether allopurinol really reaches to reperfused muscle a nd reduces tissue injury by inhibiting xanthine oxidase or not. Experi mental design. In this study, microdialysis method combined with HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography) were employed and purines, MD A (malondialdehyde), allopurinol in gracilis muscle were measured cont inuously in I-R injury model of canine gracilis muscle. The effect was compared between Group N (no treatment: n=8), Group P (preischemic tr eatment: n=8) and Group R (pre-reperfusion treatment: n=8). Results. A llopurinol reduced the increase of xanthine, uric acid, MDA in the mus cle and CPK in blood effluent from gracilis muscle after reperfusion. Tissue protecting effect of allopurinol was more effective in group R than in group P. Conclusions. By continuous measurement of purines, al lopurinol and MDA in canine gracilis muscle during 5 hr ischemia and 2 hr reperfusion, it was proved that allopurinol was delivered to reper fused skeletal muscle and reduced I-R injury by inhibiting xanthine ox idase.