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Tissue injury following ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) occurs as a consequence of actions of soluble factors and immune cells. Growing evidence supports a role for platelets in the manifestation of tissue damage following I/R. Spleen tyrosine kinase has been well documented to be important in lymphocyte activation and more recently in platelet activation. We performed experiments to evaluate whether inhibition of platelet activation through inhibition of spleen tyrosine kinase prevents tissue damage after mesenteric I/R injury. Platelets isolated from C57BL/6J mice fed with R788 for 10 days were transfused into C57BL/6J mice depleted of platelets 2 days before mesenteric I/R injury. Platelet-depleted mice transfused with platelets from R788-treated mice before mesenteric I/R displayed a significant reduction in the degree of remote lung damage, but with little change in the degree of local intestinal damage compared with control I/R mice. Transfusion of R788-treated platelets also decreased platelet sequestration, C3 deposition, and immunoglobulin deposition in lung, but not in the intestine, compared with control groups. These findings demonstrate that platelet activation is a requisite for sequestration in the pulmonary vasculature to mediate remote tissue injury after mesenteric I/R. The use of small-molecule inhibitors may be valuable to prevent tissue damage in remote organs following I/R injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. A functional role for platelets in tissue damage after mesenteric I/R is largely unknown. The hypothesis that mesenteric I/R local and remote injury are platelet dependent was tested. Using a murine mesenteric I/R model, we demonstrate that platelets orchestrate remote lung tissue damage that follows mesenteric I/R injury and also contribute, albeit to a lesser degree, to local villi damage. While lung damage is delayed compared with villi damage, it increased over time and was characterized by accumulation of platelets in the pulmonary vasculature early, followed by alveolar capillaries and extravasation into the pulmonary space. Both villi and lung tissues displayed complement deposition. We demonstrate that villi and lung damage are reduced in mice made platelet deficient before I/R injury and that platelet transfusion into previously platelet-depleted mice before I/R increased both villi and lung tissue damage. Increased C3 deposition accompanied platelet sequestration in the lung, which was mostly absent in platelet-depleted mice. In contrast, C3 deposition was only minimally reduced on villi of platelet-depleted mice. Our findings position platelets alongside complement as a significant early upstream component that orchestrates remote lung tissue damage after mesenteric I/R and strongly suggest that reperfusion injury mitigating modalities should consider the contribution of platelets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]