Dipyridamole protects the liver against warm ischemia and reperfusion injury.

Background: Adenosine, a metabolite of adenosine triphosphate degradation during ischemia, is reported to attenuate ischemia and reperfusion injury in several tissues. Dipyridamole is a nucleoside transport inhibitor that augments endogenous adenosine. In this study, we tested whether dipyridamole would attenuate hepatic I/R injury.

Role of cyclic nucleotides in ischemia and reperfusion injury of canine livers.

Background: In a series of canine liver ischemia experiments, we have shown that amelioration of hepatic injury is achievable by the inhibition of vasoconstriction, cytokine production, platelet aggregation, and neutrophil infiltration. Cyclic adenosine diphosphate (cAMP) was considered to be involved in most of these events. In our study, we tested our hypothesis that augmentation of endogenous cAMP by phosphodiesterase (PDE) 3 inhibitor, amrinone (AM), or adenylate cyclase stimulator, NKH477 (NKH), could attenuate ischemia and reperfusion injury of the liver.