Anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects of dexmedetomidine infusion in rats with mesenteric ischemia-reperfusion injury

Our study aimed to investigate the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects of intraperitoneal Dexmedetomidine (DEX) infusion at different doses in rats with mesenteric ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. Forty rats were randomly divided into five groups ( n = 8). I/R was not induced in the first group (Group control). In the second group (Group I/R), the superior mesenteric artery was occluded for 30 min and reperfused for 60 min. DEX was not applied to groups 1 and 2. During the I/R procedure, DEX infusion was administered intraperitoneally at 1 µg/kg/h to group 3 (Group 1 µg DEX), 5 µg/kg/h to group 4 (Group 5 µg DEX), and 10 µg/kg/h to group 5 (Group 10 µg DEX). Intestinal mesentery samples were taken from the ileum for histopathological grading of I/R injury: We found a significant difference between the I/R group, the control, and the 10 µg DEX group. Therefore, we can say that histopathologically sufficient protection from I/R injury is possible only with a dose of 10 µg DEX. Lower doses of 1 and 5 µg DEX appear to have insufficient protective effects against I/R injury. Our study showed that DEX reduced intestinal tissue damage scores and oxidative stress caused by mesenteric I/R injury, and suppressed neutrophil infiltration and reduced edema in histopathological examinations. However, large-scale studies are needed to understand the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects of DEX fully.