Reperfusion injury overview

Editors-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editors-In-Chief: Shivam Singla, M.D [2]

Overview

Reperfusion injury, also known as ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) or re-oxygenation injury, is the tissue damage which results from the restoration of blood supply to the tissue after a period of ischemia, anoxia or hypoxia from different pathologies. During the period of absence of blood to the tissues a condition is created in which the resulting reperfusion will result in inflammation and oxidative damage through the involvement of various mechanisms mainly involving oxidation, free radical formation and complement activation which ultimately leads to cell death, rather than restoration of normal function.

Various intracellular or extracellular changes during ischemia leads to increased intracellular calcium and ATP depletion that will ultimately land up in the cell death if the ongoing process does not stopped. Reperfusion forms reactive oxygen species . This leads to Increased mitochondrial pore permeability, complement activation & cytochrome release, inflammation and edema formation, Neutrophil platelet adhesion and thrombosis leading to progressive tissue death. In Heart reperfusion injury is attributed to oxidative stress which in turn leads to arrhythmias, Infarction and Myocardial stunning. In case of trauma the resulting restoration of blood flow to the tissue after prolonged ischemia aggravates tissue damage by either directly causing additional injury or by unmasking the injury sustained during the ischemic period. Reperfusion injury can occur in any organ of body mainly seen in the heart, intestine, kidney, lung, and muscle, and is due to microvascular damage

Pathophysiology

Mainly divided into 2 phases

1) Ischemic phase

2) Reperfusion Phase

Ischemic Phase

Reperfusion injury ( Ischemic Phase)

During this phase mainly the dysregulation of metabolic pathways occurs and in the reperfusion phase there will be generation of free radicals.

• Ischemia when the blood supply to the tissues decreases with respect to the demand required to function properly. This results in deficiency in oxygen, glucose and various other substrates required for cellular metabolism. As previously dais the derangement or dysregulation of metabolic function begins in this phase. Due to less oxygen supply cellular metabolism shifts to anaerobic glycolysis causing the glycogen to breakdown resulting in the production of 2 ATP and a lactic acid. This decrease in tissue PH starts further inhibits the ATP generation by negative feed back mechanism. ATP gets broken down into ADP, AMP and IMP. This finally gets converted to adenosine, inosine, hypoxanthine and xanthine.

• Lack of ATP at the cellular level causes impairment in the function of ionic pumps - Na+/K+ and Ca²+ pumps. As a result cytosolic sodium rises which in turn withdraws water to maintain the osmotic equilibrium consequently resulting in the cellular swelling. To maintain ionic balance potassium ion escape from the cell. Calcium is released from the mitochondria to the cytoplasm and into extracellular spaces resulting in the activation of Mitochondrial calcium- dependent cytosolic proteases. These converts the enzyme xanthine dehydrogenase to xanthine oxidase. Phospholipases activated during ischemia promotes membrane degradation and increases level of free fatty acids

• Ischemia also induces expression of a large number of genes and transcription factors, which play a major role in the damage to the tissues.
  • Transcription factors
    • Activating protein-1 (AP-1)
    • Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) which in turn activates transcription of VEGF, Erythropoietin and Glucose transporter-1
    • Nuclear factor-kappa b (NF-kb)
    • Activation of NF-kb occurs during both the ischemic and reperfusion phases

Reperfusion Phase

Reactive oxygen species

The ROS play major role in the tissue damage related to ischemia reperfusion injury. Once the ischemic tissue is reperfused the molecular oxygen catalyzes the conversion of hypoxanthine to uric acid and liberating the superoxide anion (O₂^-). This superoxide gets further converted to (H₂O₂) and the hydroxyl radical (OH^•). This OH ion causes the peroxidation lipids in the cell membranes resulting in the production and release of proinflammatory eicosanoids and ultimately cell death.

Reperfusion Injury

During the Ischemia reperfusion injury ROS also activate endothelial cells, which further produces numerous adhesion molecules

• E-selectin
• VCAM-1 (vascular cell adhesion molecule-1)
• ICAM-1 (intercellular adhesion molecule-1)
• EMLMl Am -1 ( endothelial-leukocyte adhesion molecule)
• PAi-1 (plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 ), and
• Interleukin-8 (il-8)

Eicosanoids

ROS causes lipid peroxidation of cell membranes resulting in release of

• Arachidonic acid (substrate for prostaglandins)
  • Prostaglandins usually have a vasodilatory effect hat provides protective effect during Ischemia reperfusion injury. But they have short life so their fast depletion leads to vasoconstriction ultimately leading to reduced blood flow and exacerbation of ischemia.
• Thromboxane
  • Plasma thromboxane A₂ level rises within minutes after reperfusion, resulting in vasoconstriction and platelet aggregation. This usually coincide with rapid rise in pulmonary artery pressure and a subsequent increase in pulmonary microvascular permeability.

• Leukotrienes
  • Leukotrienes are also synthesized from arachidonic acid. Leukotrienes acts directly in the endothelial cells, smooth muscle and indirectly on the neutrophils. The leukotrienes C₄, D_4, and E₄ alters the endothelial cytoskeleton, resulting in increased vascular permeability and smooth muscle contraction, and finally leading to vasoconstriction.

Nitric oxide

L-arginine is the substrate for the synthesis of Nitric oxide with the help of nitric oxide synthase enzyme. The nitric oxide synthase enzyme is usually of 3 types

• CNOS- Constitutive nitric oxide synthase enzyme
• INO S- Inducible nitric oxide synthase enzyme
• ENO S- Endothelial nitric oxide synthase enzyme

In the first 15 minutes of ischemia NO level rises due to transient ENOS activation. As said this elevation is transient so ultimately after few minutes there will be general decline in endothelial function resulting in fall of NO production. The reduction in ENOS levels during ischemia reperfusion injury are also predispose to vasoconstriction , the response mainly seen in IRI.

Endothelin

These are peptide vasoconstrictors mainly produced from the endothelium. They mainly mediate vasoconstriction through Ca²⁺-mediated vasoconstriction. Endothelin -1 levels increase during ischemia reperfusion injury in both the phases of ischemia as well as reperfusion, that mainly help in capillary vasoconstriction. Endothelin - 1 inhibitors are studied widespread regarding their role in inhibiting vasoconstriction and increasing vascular permeability.

Cytokines

Ischemia and reperfusion phase of ischemia reperfusion injury induces expression of numerous cytokines mainly:

• TNF-a
  • Elevated levels detected during cerebral and skeletal IRI. it can also induce generation of ROS and enhance the susceptibility of vascular endothelium to neutrophil mediated injury by increasing the expression of ICAM-1 which helps in binding of neutrophils to the endothelium.