ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the effect of combination of glycine and methylprednisolone (MP) on Kupffer cells in liver of rats suffered from hemorrhagic shock.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Fifty Wistar rats were bled to establish the shock model and subsequently resuscitated with shed blood and normal saline. Just prior to resuscitation, the rats were randomly assigned to 5 groups: sham group, shock group, shock + glycine group, shock + MP group and shock + glycine + MP group. The intracellular calcium concentration and the level of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha) in the culture medium of Kupffer cells were determined after stimulation with different concentrations (1, 10, 100 and 1000 ng/ml) of lipopolysaccharide (LPS).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Concentration of intracellular calcium and production of TNF-alpha by isolated Kupffer cells stimulated by LPS were elevated significantly in the rats with hemorrhagic shock, which were totally prevented by glycine + MP compared with other groups (P < 0.005).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The combination of glycine and MP prevents the increase of intracellular calcium of Kupffer cell, suppress Kupffer cell activation, decrease the production of TNF-alpha of Kupffer cell and block systemic inflammatory responses more effectively than single administer of glycine or MP.</p>