Levosimendan Reduces Lung Injury in a Canine Model of Cardiopulmonary Bypass.
OBJECTIVE
To explore the lung-protective effect of levosimendan (LS) during cardiopulmonary bypass in a canine model by determining the wet/dry weight (W/D) ratio of lung tissue, malonaldehyde (MDA) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) concentrations, and performing a histological evaluation.


METHODS
Thirty-two canines were divided randomly into four groups and underwent a routine aortic cross-clamping cardiopulmonary bypass procedure for 1 h, followed by recovery for 2 h. Animals were handled as follows: group C (means control group), no special treatment after aortic cross clamping; group P (means pulmonary artery perfusion group), pulmonary artery perfusion with cold oxygenated blood after aortic cross clamping; group LSIV (means intravenous injection of LS group), intravenous injection of LS (65 µg/kg) before thoracotomy, and the rest of the procedure was identical to the control group; group LPS (means pulmonary perfusion with LS group), pulmonary perfusion with cold oxygenated blood combined with LS (65 µg/kg) after aortic cross clamping. Lung tissues were removed and subjected to evaluation of pathological alterations, W/D ratio and MDA and SOD concentrations.


RESULTS
In group C, the W/D ratio and MDA concentration were higher, while the SOD concentrations were lower (p<0.05). Compared with groups P and LSIV, the MDA concentration was lower in group LPS, while that of SOD was higher (p<0.05); Light and electron microscopy indicated that LS intervention reduced impairment of lung tissues.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings suggest that LS plays an important role in protecting lung tissues.
The First Ward of Cardiovascular Surgery Department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China .
Junbo
J
Feng
The Oncology Department of the Hefei Second People's Hospital, Hefei, China .
Haiyuan
H
Liu
The First Ward of Cardiovascular Surgery Department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China .
Jiayi
J
Chen
The First Ward of Cardiovascular Surgery Department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China .
Jiyuan
J
Wang
The First Ward of Cardiovascular Surgery Department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China .
Zhuang
Z
Liu
The First Ward of Cardiovascular Surgery Department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China .
Shenglin
S
Ge
Canine; Cardiopulmonary bypass; Levosimendan; protective effect