Role of reactive oxygen species in the early stages of liver regeneration in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is a risk factor for prognosis after liver resection. In previous work, we found a pro-apoptotic state in the diabetic rat liver. In this work, this was also observed 1 hour post-partial hepatectomy (PH) and resulted in a deficient regenerative response 24 hours post-PH. Treatment with insulin and/or Desferoxamine (DES) (iron chelator) or Tempol (TEM) (free radicals scavenger) was effective in preventing the liver reactive oxygen species (ROS) production induced by diabetic state. High levels of ROS play a role in hepatic lipid peroxidation in diabetes before and after PH, and lead to increased pro-apoptotic events, which contribute to a reduced regenerative response. This becomes of relevance for the potential use of antioxidants/free radical scavengers plus insulin for improvement of post-surgical recovery of diabetic patients subjected to a PH.

Keywords::

• diabetes
• reactive oxygen species (ROS)
• liver regeneration
• apoptosis
• insulin

Acknowledgements

We especially wish to thank Dr. Cecilia Basiglio for English revision.

Declaration of interest: There is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research reported. This work was supported by research grants from ANPCyT (PICT N° 32413, C.E. Carnovale PhD.) and from CONICET (PIP N° 5531, C.E. Carnovale PhD.).

This paper was first published online on Early Online on 27 July 2011.