Minireviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jul 28, 2016; 22(28): 6501-6508
Published online Jul 28, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i28.6501
Polyethylene glycols: An effective strategy for limiting liver ischemia reperfusion injury
Gianfranco Pasut, Arnau Panisello, Emma Folch-Puy, Alexandre Lopez, Carlos Castro-Benítez, Maria Calvo, Teresa Carbonell, Agustín García-Gil, René Adam, Joan Roselló-Catafau
Gianfranco Pasut, Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological, University of Padova and Veneto Institute of Oncology, IRCCS, 35128 Padova, Italy
Arnau Panisello, Emma Folch-Puy, Joan Roselló-Catafau, Experimental Pathology Department, Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona, 08036 Barcelona, Spain
Alexandre Lopez, Carlos Castro-Benítez, René Adam, Centre Hépatobiliaire, AP-HP Hôpital Paul Brousse, Inserm U935, Université Paris-Sud, Villejuif, 75008 Paris, France
Maria Calvo, Unitat de Microscòpia Òptic Avançada, CCiTUB, Centre Científics i Tecnològics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Barcelona, 08036 Barcelona, Spain
Teresa Carbonell, Physiology Department, Faculty of Biology, Universitat de Barcelona, 08036 Barcelona, Spain
Agustín García-Gil, Hospital Clinico de Zaragoza, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to the writing of the manuscript and approved the final version.
Supported by Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Madrid, Spain), No. PI15/00110.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interests to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Joan Roselló-Catafau, PhD, Experimental Pathology Department, Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona, Rosselló 161, 08036-Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. jrcbam@iibb.csic.es
Telephone: +34-93-3638333 Fax: +34-93-3638301
Received: March 9, 2016
Peer-review started: March 10, 2016
First decision: April 14, 2016
Revised: May 4, 2016
Accepted: June 2, 2016
Article in press: June 2, 2016
Published online: July 28, 2016
Processing time: 134 Days and 14.6 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Pharmacological treatments for preventing liver ischemia reperfusion injury are limited, due to the complex pathophysiology of this condition. The drugs currently used for preventing ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) all have local and specific activity with potentially damaging side effects. This review focuses on the current understanding of polyethylene glycols, which are non-toxic polymers, as new emerging agents for limiting liver IRI, and proposes directions for future investigations.