Department of Surgery, Instituto Português de Oncologia de Coimbra, 3000-075 Coimbra, Portugal.
Department of Life Sciences, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, and Center of Neurosciences and Cell Biology, University of Coimbra, 3004-531 Coimbra, Portugal.
Int J Mol Sci. 2018 Jan 19;19(1):284. doi: 10.3390/ijms19010284.
Liver transplantation is a therapeutic regimen to treat patients with non-malignant end-stage liver diseases and malignant tumors of hepatic origin. The ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in liver transplantation is associated with disruption of mitochondrial function in the hepatic parenchyma. Several studies have been conducted in animal models to identify pharmacological therapeutic strategies to minimize the injury induced by the cold/warm I/R in liver transplantation. Most of these studies were conducted in unrealistic conditions without the potential to be translated to clinical usage. Berberine (BBR) is a pharmacological compound with a potential protective effect of the mitochondrial function in the context of I/R. For the future clinical application of these pharmacological strategies, it is essential that a close resemblance exists between the methodology used in the animals models and real life. In this study, we have demonstrated that the addition of BBR to the preservation solution in an I/R setting preserves mitochondrial function and bioenergetics, protecting the liver from the deleterious effects caused by I/R. As such, BBR has the potential to be used as a pharmacological therapeutic strategy.
肝移植是一种治疗非恶性终末期肝病和肝源性恶性肿瘤患者的方法。肝移植中的缺血/再灌注（I/R）损伤与肝实质中线粒体功能的破坏有关。已经在动物模型中进行了几项研究，以确定药理学治疗策略，以最大限度地减少肝移植中冷/温 I/R 引起的损伤。这些研究中的大多数都是在不切实际的条件下进行的，没有转化为临床应用的潜力。小檗碱（BBR）是一种具有保护线粒体功能潜力的药理学化合物，在 I/R 情况下。为了将来将这些药理学策略应用于临床，动物模型中使用的方法与现实生活之间必须存在密切的相似性。在这项研究中，我们已经证明，在 I/R 环境下，将 BBR 添加到保存液中可以保持线粒体功能和生物能量，保护肝脏免受 I/R 引起的有害影响。因此，BBR 有可能被用作一种药理学治疗策略。
