RESUMO
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the protective effect of limb ischemic preconditioning against liver ischemia/reperfusion injury in the rat.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Rats were randomly divided into four groups (n = 8): (1) Sham group (S group), rats without ischemic preconditioning (IPC), (2) Ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) without IP (I/R group); (3) Rats with 5 min IPC (IPC group); (4) Rats with lower limbs IPC and repeated three times (remote ischemic preconditioning, RPC group); The rats were subjected to 60-min sustained liver ischemia followed by 180-min reperfusion except S group. All ischemia rats were only subjected to 70% liver ischemia. Finally, blood and liver samples were obtained to determine the activity of ALT and AST, liver wet/dry weight (W/D), PMN counts and pathology.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>All IPC group and RPC group had obviously lower levels of ALT, AST, W/D, PMN counts than that of the I/R group (P < 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The limb ischemic preconditioning has a protective effects against liver ischemia/reperfusion injury in the rat, possibly are due to suppression of liver inflammatory reaction, improvement of liver microcirculation.</p>