Mechanism of heart injury in brain death rabbits / 中华器官移植杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the mechanism of brain death-induced heart damage by observing the change patterns of morphological damage to the heart and related inflammatory factors after brain death and provide the experimental basis for heart transplantation by brain-dead donor.Methods The 30 rabbits were equally divided into two groups by the random digital table method:sham-operation group and brain death group.The rabbit brain death model was established in the brain death group,and the sham-operation group was given slow intracranial pressure.The rest treatments in the two groups were the same.At 2nd,6th and 8th h after operation,blood pressure,heart rate and respiratory rate were recorded.The damage of heart tissues was observed by HE staining.The plasma concentrations of IL-1,IL-6 and IL-8 were tested by ELISA.The expression of some inflammatory factors in heart issues was detected by RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry.Results At 8 h after brain death,there was no signifiant difference in blood pressure and heart rate between two groups (P＞0.05).The damage of heart issues in the brain death group was more serious than in the shamoperation group.With the prolongation of brain death,the plasma concentrations of IL-6 and IL-8 increased significantly in the brain death group (P＜0.05),but the concentration of IL-1β showed no siginificant difference between the two groups at 2 h after brain death (P＜0.05).Besides,the expression of HSP27 and HSP70 mRNA as well as the protein expression of ICAM and NF-κB was significantly increased in the brain death group as compared with that in the sham-operation group (P＜0.05).Conclusion With the prolongation of brain death time,the inflammatory factors in the heart tissues and plasma interleukin were increased,suggesting the inflammatory reaction occurs in donor heart under the condition of brain death,which influences the quality of donor in the heart transplantation.