Abstract
BACKGROUND Ginkgetin inhibits growth of tumor cells, reducing blood lipids, and improving atherosclerosis, but the protective effect of ginkgetin in donation after cardiac death (DCD) livers is still unknown. The aim of this study was to determine whether pretreatment of DCD donor livers with ginkgetin can reduce inflammatory response through the JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway. MATERIAL AND METHODS Twenty male Sprague-Dawley rats (200-250 g) were randomly divided into 4 groups: Sham, DCD, Ginkgetin (0.6 mg/kg) pretreatment 1 h before surgery, and Ginkgetin (0.6 mg/kg) plus broussonin E (0.3 mg/kg) (JAK2/STAT3 signaling agonist) pretreatment 1 h before surgery. Rat livers were subjected to 30 min warm ischemia and 24 h cold storage to simulate the preservation process of DCD donor livers, followed by normothermic machine perfusion for 1 h to simulate liver reperfusion in vivo. Liver tissues and perfusate samples were collected for further studies. RESULTS Ginkgetin pretreatment significantly decreased the values of ALT and AST (P<0.05), and improved histological alterations according to improved Suzuki's Score (P<0.05). Ginkgetin also inhibited the protein expression levels of p-JAK2/JAK2 and p-STAT3/STAT3 (P<0.05). Furthermore, ginkgetin pretreatment inhibited levels of interleukin-1β, interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor a (P<0.05) to suppress inflammatory response. In addition, broussonin E reversed the improvement of ginkgetin on DCD donor livers. CONCLUSIONS Ginkgetin can inhibit the inflammatory response through the JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway to improve the quality of DCD donor livers.