The protective effects of quercetin and sucrose on cold preservation injury in vitro and in vivo

Abstract

Protective effects of quercetin (QE) on cold injury of liver were investigated with the preservation experiments of isolated hepatocytes and whole liver in rats. When hepatocytes were stored at 4°C for 1 day, the viable cells decreased to 3.7% and 5.7% in saline and commercial hepatocyte incubation medium, respectively. The addition of 3.3 and 33.1 μmol/L of QE significantly improved the cell viability to 28.3 and 23.7%, respectively (p<0.05). In liver cold storage model, the addition of QE suppressed the leakage of alanine aminotransferase in the preservation solution. Interestingly, sucrose enhanced the effect of QE. When the preserved livers were transplanted orthotopically, the addition of QE and sucrose to the UW solution decreased serum aminotransferase levels significantly compared with UW solution alone and the levels were almost the same as those of non-preserved fresh graft group. Our findings suggest that addition of QE and sucrose to UW solution can improve liver preservation and the outcomes of liver transplantation.