Effect of glutamine pretreatment on rat liver microcirculation during ischemia-reperfusion

Background: Ischemia-reperfusion (I-R) injury plays an important role during liver resection or liver transplantation. Ischemic damage is inevitable in a number of surgical procedures performed on the liver. The clinical outcome as well as the survival of the functioning grafts and the resected liver largely depends on the extent of inflicted damage. The glutamine is essential in the glutathion (GSH) synthesis as it is well-known. The I-R leads to the production of toxic oxygen-derived free radicals which influence the GSH pools. This study investigated the effect of glutamine pretreatment on hepatic microcircul…