Innovative Pharmacological/Therapeutic Approaches against Hepatic Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury

Prolonged oxygen deprivation corresponding to the ischemic period is observed during liver resection, transplantation and trauma and subsequent oxygen restoration always leads to reperfusion injury. In particular, the ischemic period represents an inevitable event during conventional organ preservation before transplantation and the magnitude and severity of reperfusion injury depends on the time of liver preservation. Faced with the increasing shortage of donor organs for transplantation, there is renewed interest in marginal livers, such as those obtained from donation after circulatory death or fatty livers, which are particularly susceptible to ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury.