Protective Effect of Parenteral Vitamin E on Ischemia-reperfusion Injury of Rabbit Kidney

ObjectivesTo evaluate the effect of parenteral vitamin E on renal ischemia-reperfusion injury.MethodsTwenty German rabbits weighing 1.5-1.9 kg were selected and divided randomly into study and control groups. Each group contained 5 male and 5 female rabbits. Intravenous vitamin E was administered to the study group 5 minutes before left renal artery clamping and the same volume of normal saline was administered to the control group. Ischemia was maintained for 60 minutes. After 48 hours, nephrectomy was performed and kidneys were sent to the pathology laboratory. Histopathologic sections were evaluated by the pathologist and graded by the extent of tissue injury to normal, mild, and moderate to severe injury.ResultsHistopathologic evaluation of the sections revealed that in the control group 50% of the sections had signs of moderate to severe injury and 50% were categorized as mild injury, whereas 50% of the study group sections developed no sign of ischemia-reperfusion injury and 50% developed mild injury (P = .03). No significant correlation was found between sex and the extent of cell injury (P = .99).ConclusionsParenteral injection of vitamin E significantly protects cells against ischemia-reperfusion injury in German rabbits.