ANTIOXIDANT THERAPIES AND ISCHEMIC LIVER- REGENERATION

Ischemia is a common situation, not always desirable, in liver surgery . In any case, it implies cellular damage that would be worth avoiding . In the present study, different antioxidant drugs (superoxide-dismut ase, allopurinol and folinic acid) are administered prior to liver rep erfusion in order to reduce ischemic damage- Liver regeneration, follo wing a 70% hepatectomy and 15 minutes of normothermic hepatic ischemia , serves as an indirect functional test of the reperfused liver. SOD ( 6 mg/kg) and allopurinol (50 mg/kg) have accelerated hepatocytic DNA s ynthesis without increasing the number or percentage of activated hepa tocytes. However, the folinic acid has proved to be very effective, co unteracting the deleterious effect of liver ischemia on hepatocytic re generation.