Ischemic damage prevention by coenzyme Q10 treatment of the donor before orthotopic liver transplantation: biochemical and histologic findings.

This study was undertaken to determine whether pretreatment of the donor rat with coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) would protect against hepatic ischemia induced for 30 minutes at normothermic body temperature. Fresh liver transplants were used as controls (minus warm ischemia of 30 minutes) and gave a 1-week survival rate of 84.6%. CoQ10 was administered intravenously (10 mg/kg body weight) to the donor rat 1 hour before induction of warm ischemia (group A). In another group (B), the same dose was given intravenously not only to the donor rat but also to the recipient rat 1 hour before grafting. None of the placebo group survived more than 2 days. The 1-week survival rates of the groups pretreated with CoQ10 were 45.5% for group A and 50% for group B. There was no significant difference between groups A and B. A statistically significant difference was demonstrated between the placebo group and both CoQ10-treated groups (p less than 0.05). It was therefore assumed that CoQ10, accumulated in the donor liver, was a primary factor in improving survival. Serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (SGOT), serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase (SGPT), serum alkaline phosphatase (SALP), total bilirubin, and total protein were measured by means of light and electron microscopic examination of the liver 6 months after transplantation. Long-term-surviving rats with transplanted, ischemically damaged liver that was pretreated with CoQ10 showed a decrease in the activity of SGOT and SGPT and an increase in levels of total protein to the normal range (as well as to those levels exhibited by fresh-liver-transplanted rats) with practically no change in levels of SALP, total bilirubin, or in histologic findings. These results indicate that donor pretreatment with CoQ10 is useful for increasing survival after warm ischemic damage of rat liver grafts.