Lipid Peroxides in the Mechanism of Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury in Skeletal Muscle—Experimental Studies

Two sets of experiments were conducted to investigate whether oxygen-de-rived free radicals are involved in the mechanism of ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury of skeletal muscle and vitamin E is effective in alleviating the injury. In the first set of experiments, twenty adult mongrel dogs were divided into three groups: group 1 (n=7) control, group 2 (n = 6) I/R, and group 3 (n=7) I/R with 500 mg of vitamin E. Serum creatine phosphokinase (CPK) and lipid per-oxides (LPO) were measured as markers of rhabdomyolysis and biomembrane injury due to oxygen-derived free radicals, respectively. CPK increased signifi-cantly after reperfusion with a peak value of 38,000 ± 9,800 mU/mL in group 2, when compared with a peak value of 1,060 ± 290 mU/mL in group 3 (p < 0.02). LPO also significantly increased with a peak value of 20.4 ±3.7 nmol/mL in group 2, when compared with a peak value of 9.2 ± 2.2 nmol/mL in group 3 (p < 0.04). In the second sets of experiments, 13 dogs were divided into two groups