Sodium nitroprusside as a nitric oxide donor in a rat intestinal ischemiareperfusion model

aim: the aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of sodium nitroprusside in the reduction of the intestinal ischemiareperfusion injury as a nitric oxide donor after intraperitoneal administration. methods: the histopathological examinations and tissue malonyldialdehyde levels of 35 wistar albino rats that were subjected to ischemia-reperfusion, were performed in 5 groups. the groups include control, ischemia -reperfusion, sodium nitroprusside, ng-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (l-name) and sodium nitroprusside+l-name. each rat was subjected to ischemia for 40 minutes and reperfusion for 30 minutes, except the control group. the medications were done intraperitoneally as saline 4 ml/kg, sodium nitroprusside 5 mg/kg, l-name 10 mg/kg just before reperfusions. results: significant tissue injury in histological sections and an increase in tissue levels of malonyldialdehyde was detected in the i/r group. the efficacy of intraperitoneal administration of sodium nitroprusside in both sodium nitroprusside alone and sodium nitroprusside+l-name groups was found statistically significant for the reducing of injury scores (p<0.05). the difference between the ischemia/reperfusion and sodium nitroprusside groups was found statistically significant as in the ischemia/reperfusion and sodium nitroprusside+l-name groups due to the tissue malonyldialdehyde levels (p<0.05). there was no statistical difference between ischemia/reperfusion and l-name groups. conclusion: ischemia/reperfusion induced injury might be reduced by the intraperitoneal administration of sodium nitroprusside, even in the presence of l-name, in the rat intestinal model.