-Original-

Continuous Infusion of Dexmedetomidine Improves Renal Ischemia-reperfusion Injury in Rat Kidney

Shinji Sugita, Tadashi Okabe and Atsuhiro Sakamoto

Department of Anesthesiology, Graduate School of Medicine, Nippon Medical School

Background: Dexmedetomidine has shown beneficial effects in several inflammatory models, including ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI). This study investigated whether the continuous infusion of dexmedetomidine could improve renal IRI in rats.
Methods: Rats were subjected to either a sham operation and given pentobarbital (10 mg/kg/h; n=6) or were subjected to 45 minutes of renal ischemia and anesthetized with pentobarbital (10 mg/kg/h; n=6), dexmedetomidine (10 or 20 μg/kg/h; both n=6), or both pentobarbital (10 mg/kg/h) and dexmedetomidine (1.0 μg/kg/h; n=6) for 6 hours of reperfusion. Blood urea nitrogen and serum creatinine were measured 6 hours after reperfusion. Gene expression mediated by inflammatory systems in the kidney was measured with the real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction.
Results: Treatment with 10 or 20 μg/kg/h of dexmedetomidine reduced renal dysfunction. The increases in the messenger RNA expression of interleukin-6, intercellular adhesion molecule 1, and inducible nitric oxide synthase caused by renal IRI were suppressed. Under In rats under pentobarbital anesthesia, 1.0 μg/kg/h of dexmedetomidine also improved renal dysfunction after renal IRI.
Conclusion: The present study demonstrates that continuous infusion of dexmedetomidine improves renal IRI. Moreover, with pentobarbital anesthesia, a dose of dexmedetomidine lower than the sedative dose also improves renal IRI.

J Nippon Med Sch 2013; 80: 131-139

Keywords
dexmedetomidine, kidney, ischemia-reperfusion injury

Correspondence to
Shinji Sugita, MD, Department of Anesthesiology, Graduate School of Medicine, Nippon Medical School, 1-1-5 Sendagi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8603, Japan
sugitashinji@nms.ac.jp

Received, May 24, 2012
Accepted, November 1, 2012