HYPOXIA REOXYGENATION INJURY IN LIVER - KUPFFER CELLS ARE MUCH MORE VULNERABLE TO REOXYGENATION THAN TO HYPOXIA

  • 1 May 1990
    • journal article
    • letter
    • Vol. 68  (2) , 263-266
Abstract
Cell injury due to hypoxia and reoxygenation was studied in primary cultured rat Kupffer cells. Under hypoxic conditions only 20 %of the cells had lost their viability after 12 h of incubation. In contrast, almost complete losses of cell viability were observed when reoxygenation was performed after 2, 4 or 6 h of hypoxia. The time-course of reoxygenation injury in Kupffer cells was characterized by a lag phase of 2 h during which no differences between reoxygenated and hypoxically incubated cells was apparent; during the next 4 h, there was an increase of up to 100% in the amount of nonviable cells in the reoxygenated cultures. These results indicate that Kupffer cells were much more vulnerable to reoxygenation than to hypoxia. The time-course of cell damage upon hypoxia/reoxygenation may indicate a self-destruction mechanism caused by an oxygen-triggered activation of these cells.