Effect of trapidil in ischemia/reperfusion injury on rat small intestine.

To investigate the effect of trapidil on the intestinal ischemia-reperfusion injury, we determined malondialdehyde levels as a indicator of lipid peroxidation, nitrite and nitrate levels as reflections of nitric oxide metabolism, and histopathological findings in rats subjected to 40 min of ischemia and 2 h of reperfusion. Histopathological evaluation demonstrated that trapidil treatment has a protective effect on intestinal mucosa and reduces inflammatory cell infiltration in lamina propria, which is consistently noted in the untreated ischemic and reperfused intestines. Possible mechanism of this effect may be explained by the reduced lipid peroxidation (mean malondialdehyde level 3.72 +/- 0.27 vs. 6.13 +/- 0.44, p <.0001) and improved nitric oxide metabolism (mean nitrite plus nitrate 38.21 +/- 2.33 vs. 30.14 +/- 1.47, p =.022).