Alleviating the ischemia-reperfusion injury of donor liver by transfection of exogenous hTERT genes.
BACKGROUND
Ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury had been linked to primary graft dysfunction in transplantation. To find effective methods to alleviate donor liver injury from I/R, we transferred exogenous human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) genes into donor rats before liver transplantation.


METHODS
SD rats (age, 16 months) were divided into 3 groups: group A were donors pretreated with exogenous hTERT gene; group B were donors pretreated with adenovirus vector only; and group C were donors pretreated with physiologic saline. Alanine aminotransferase (ALT), apoptotic index, telomerase activity, and histological evaluation were calculated after liver transplantation.


RESULTS
The levels of ALT and apoptotic index of group A were significantly lower than those of group B or group C (P < .05), at the same time, a mild histological injury and increased telomerase activity were also observed in group A.


CONCLUSIONS
Exogenous hTERT gene provides protection against I/R injury, which depends on exogenous hTERT gene-mediated inhibition of apoptosis.
Wang
W
W
Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine, Shan Dong University, Jinan, China.
Liu
C Z
CZ
Jin
B
B
Hu
S Y
SY
Liu
X X
XX
Jiang
X S
XS
Zhang
Z L
ZL
Zhu
M
M
D000256:Adenoviridae / Q000235:genetics; D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000502:physiology; D018014:Gene Transfer Techniques; D005818:Genetic Engineering / Q000379:methods; D006085:Graft Survival; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology*; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D015427:Reperfusion Injury / Q000517:prevention & control*; D019098:Telomerase / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D014019:Tissue Donors
D019098:Telomerase