Glycine Protects Bile Physiology and Biliary-Specific Liver Cell Metabolism from Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury: A 1H NMR Study

Liver ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury is a major complication of liver resection and transplantation. Cytokine release by activated Kupffer cells (KCs) play a central role in the inflammatory cascade of I/R injury. There is evidence that glycine may protect against liver I/R injury by inhibition of KC activity. However, its effect on bile flow, an established marker of hepatic function, and bile composition is not known. A rabbit model of hepatic lobar warm I/R was used. Under general anesthesia, the sham group (n = 6) underwent laparotomy alone for 7 h. The I/R group (n = 6) underwent 60 min of left and median lobe inflow occlusion and 6 h of reperfusion. The glycine + I/R group (n = 6) underwent a same procedure to controls after receiving glycine 5 mg/kg intravenous infusion for over 15 min. Bile flow was collected, measured, and analyzed by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Glycine prevented the significant reduction in bile flow seen in I/R at 6 h reperfusion (145.0 ± 11.4 vs. 108.3 ± 28.2 μL...