Pretreatment with p-coumaric acid protect rat’s liver against ischemia-reperfusion injury

Introduction: Many physiological, biochemical and toxicological reactions are occurred in liver. Therefore, healthy function of this organ is vital for the whole body. In spite of having potent endogenous antioxidant system, lots of reactions in liver make it more susceptible to stressors. It is established that improving the potency of liver antioxidants can increase its ability to resist against different kinds of oxidative stressors. Therefore, this study designed to determine whether p-coumaric alleviate ischemia-reperfusion-induced hepatic injury (IRI) in rats. Methods: Thirty-two rats were randomly assigned in sham, p-coumaric acid (PC), ischemia-reperfusion (IR) and p-coumaric acid pretreated IR (PC+IR) groups (n=8 in each group). Animals in sham group underwent laparotomy but not IR injury; rats in PC group did not experience any surgical procedures; IR and PC+IR groups underwent hepatic IR injury. P-coumaric acid at 100mg/kg were given for 7 consecutive days to PC and PC+IR groups. The last dose of p-coumaric acid was injected just before surgery on 7th days of experiment. The levels of malondialdehyde, TAC, ALT and AST were determined. A molecular evaluation to quantify the gene expression of SOD and GPx was done in liver homogenate. Results: P-coumaric mitigated the hepatic injuries induced by IR and improved TAC, ALT, AST, SOD and GPx. This pretreatment was also decreased MDA level. Conclusion: The current outcomes showed that PC via improving the endogenous level of antioxidants in liver tissues and inhibiting IR-induced inflammation maintain the liver structure and function of liver against IR.