ABSTRACT
To study whether treatment with adenosine (ADO), an agonist of adenosine receptors, attenuates intestinal dysfunction caused by ischemia (I) and reperfusion (R), we treated rats with ADO (15 mg/kg or saline solution (SS) intravenously before 60 minutes occlusion of the superior mesenteric artery (I) and/or 120 minutes after its release (R). After I or I/R, isolated jejunal segments (2 cm) were mounted in an organ bath to study nerve-mediated contractions stimulated by electrical pulses or KCI with the use of a digital recording system. Thin jejunal slices were stained with hematoxylin and eosin for optical microscopy. Compared with the sham group, jejunal contractions were reduced in I+SS and IR+SS but similar after treatment with ADO (I+ADO and IR+ADO groups). We concluded that rat jejunal enteric nerves were damaged in I+SS and IR+SS but not in the I+ADO and IR+ADO groups. These results suggested that ADO attenuated intestinal dysfunction due to I and R.
