Retinoic acid receptor α promotes autophagy to alleviate liver ischemia and reperfusion injury

Figure 1 All-trans retinoic acid pretreatment ameliorates liver ischemia and reperfusion injury. Hepatic ischemia was induced in mice for 90 min, and then the mice were sacrificed at 6 h or 20 h after reperfusion. A, B: Hepatocellular function as assessed by sALT and sAST levels; C: Liver samples were stained with hematoxylin and eosin (magnification × 200); D: Liver histological grade by the Suzuki criteria. Mean ± SD, n = 3-5/group, ^aP < 0.05 vs the sham group; ^bP < 0.05 vs the IR 6 h group; ^cP < 0.05 vs the IR 20 h group. ATRA: All-trans retinoic acid; IR: Ischemia and reperfusion; sALT: Serum alanine aminotransferase; sAST: Serum aspartate aminotransferase.