Amelioration of renal damage by administration of anti-thymocyte globulin to potential donors in a brain death rat model

CICORA, F.; STRINGA, P.; GUERRIERI, D.; ROBERTI, J.; AMBROSI, N.; TONIOLO, F.; CICORA, P.; PALTI, G.; VÁSQUEZ, D.; RAIMONDI, C.

CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL IMMUNOLOGY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Año: 2012 vol. 169 p. 330 - 337

0009-9104

Brain death (BD), a non-immunological factor of renal injury, triggers an inflammatory process causing pathological signs of cell death in the kidney, such as necrosis and apoptosis. Kidneys from brain dead donors show lower success rates than kidneys from living donors and one strategy to improve transplantation outcome is to precondition the donors. For the first time, anti-rat thymoglobulin (rATG) was administered in an experimental brain death animal model to evaluate if it could ameliorate histopathological damage and improve organ function. Animals were divided into three groups: V (n=5) ventilated for 2h; BD (n=5) brain death and ventilated for 2h; and BD+rATG (n=5) brain death, ventilated for 2h, rATG was administered during brain death (10mg/kg). We observed lower creatinine levels in treatment groups (means): V, 0·88±0·22mg/dl; BD, 1·37±0·07mg/dl; and BD+rATG, 0·64±0·02mg/dl (BD versus BD+rATG, P