Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Aug 27, 2024; 16(8): 1177-1184
Published online Aug 27, 2024. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v16.i8.1177
Dynamics of glutamine synthetase expression in hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury: Implications for therapeutic interventions
Zhi-Hao Huang, Meng-Qi Dong, Feng-Yong Liu, Wei-Jie Zhou
Zhi-Hao Huang, Meng-Qi Dong, Wei-Jie Zhou, State Key Laboratory of Organ Failure Research, Department of General Surgery, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Precision Medicine for Gastrointestinal Tumor, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, Guangdong Province, China
Feng-Yong Liu, Department of Interventional Radiology, Senior Department of Oncology, Fifth Medical Center of PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China
Co-corresponding authors: Feng-Yong Liu and Wei-Jie Zhou.
Author contributions: Zhou WJ and Liu FY conceptualized the study and performed the experiments, wrote the original drafts; Huang ZH and Dong MQ performed the experiments, the formal analysis, and the validation investigations; Zhou WJ collected the data, wrote, reviewed and edited the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This manuscript does not involve human samples or clinical trials, therefore no approval form is required.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: Animal-related research protocols were consistent with the United States Public Health Service Policy on Use of Laboratory Animals, and were approved by the Ethics Committee on Use and Care of Animals of Southern Medical University.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: The data and materials of this study are available from Zhou WJ (weijiezhouum@163.com) upon reasonable request.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Wei-Jie Zhou, PhD, Professor, State Key Laboratory of Organ Failure Research, Department of General Surgery, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Precision Medicine for Gastrointestinal Tumor, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, No. 1838 Guangzhou Road, Guangzhou 510515, Guangdong Province, China. weijiezhouum@163.com
Received: June 18, 2024
Revised: July 9, 2024
Accepted: July 25, 2024
Published online: August 27, 2024
Processing time: 64 Days and 21.3 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) poses a great challenge in liver surgery and transplantation because of oxidative stress and inflammatory responses. The changes in glutamine synthetase (GS) expression during hepatic IRI remain unclear.

AIM

To investigate the dynamic expression of GS during hepatic IRI.

METHODS

Following hepatic ischemia for 1 h and reperfusion, liver tissue samples were collected at 0.5, 6, and 24 hours postreperfusion for fixation, embedding, sectioning. Hematoxylin and eosin staining and GS staining were performed.

RESULTS

GS expression rapidly decreases in hepatocytes around the central vein after IRI, reaching its lowest point at 6 hours postreperfusion, and then gradually recovers.

CONCLUSION

GS is highly sensitive to IRI, highlighting its potential role as an indicator of liver injury states and a target for therapeutic intervention.

Keywords: Hepatic ischemia-reperfusion; Glutamine synthetase; Central vein; Liver; Injury repair

Core Tip: The role of glutamine synthetase (GS) in hepatic ischemia‒reperfusion injury (IRI), a major challenge in liver surgery and transplantation, was explored in this study. Using a mouse model, dynamic GS expression patterns were observed. The expression of GS, which is typically high around the central vein in normal livers, significantly decreases postreperfusion, which is correlated with liver damage. The re-expression of GS during liver recovery highlights its critical role in cellular defense. These findings suggest that modulating GS expression could be a therapeutic strategy to reduce IRI, improving patient outcomes after liver transplantation.