EFFECT OF THE COMBINATION OF HUMAN THIOREDOXIN AND L-CYSTEINE ON ISCHEMIA-REPERFUSION INJURY IN ISOLATED RAT LUNGS

We studied the role of human thioredoxin and L-cysteine in ischemia-reperfusion lung injury. Thirty adult Wistar rats were allocated to five groups, according to the drug added to the pulmonary artery flush solution before ischemia(groups 1 and 2: none; group 3: human thioredoxin; group 4: L-cysteine, and group 5: human thioredoxin and L-cysteine) and according to the ex vivo ischemic interval at 37 degrees C(group 1: no ischemia; groups 2-5: 90 min). After ischemia, the lungs were reperfused for 60 min with Krebs-Henseleit solution containing 4% bovine serum albumin. In nonischemic lungs, the pulmonary arterial pressure, airway pressure, wet to dry lung weight ratio and the albumin concentration in bronchoalveolar fluid were within normal ranges. In contrast, all parameters of ischemic untreated lungs were generally poor. Compared to the ischemic untreated lungs, treatment with the combination of human thioredoxin and L-cysteine significantly reduced the wet to dry lung weight ratio (group 2: 9.18 +/- 0.25, group 5: 7.88 +/- 0.27), and the albumin concentration in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (group 2: 78.3 +/- 17.1 mu g/ml, group 5: 24.0 +/- 3.8 mu g/ml). No significant improvement was found in pulmonary arterial pressure and airway pressure. These results suggested that treatment with human thioredoxin (adult T cell leukemia-derived factor) and L-cysteine attenuates ischemia-reperfusion injury in isolated rat lungs.