Mouratidou C, Pavlidis ET, Katsanos G, Papaioannou M, Niti A, Kotoulas SC, Tsoulfas G, Mouloudi E, Galanis IN, Pavlidis TE. Cytoprotective effect of prostacyclin on hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury. World J Methodol 2025; 15(4): 104472 [DOI: 10.5662/wjm.v15.i4.104472]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Theodoros E Pavlidis, MD, PhD, Emeritus Professor, The 2nd Department of Propaedeutic Surgery, Hippokration General Hospital, School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Konstantinoupoleos 49, Thessaloniki 54642, Greece. pavlidth@auth.gr
Research Domain of This Article
Transplantation
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
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/
World J Methodol. Dec 20, 2025; 15(4): 104472 Published online Dec 20, 2025. doi: 10.5662/wjm.v15.i4.104472
Cytoprotective effect of prostacyclin on hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury
Christina Mouratidou, Efstathios T Pavlidis, Georgios Katsanos, Maria Papaioannou, Argyri Niti, Serafeim-Chrysovalantis Kotoulas, Georgios Tsoulfas, Eleni Mouloudi, Ioannis N Galanis, Theodoros E Pavlidis
Christina Mouratidou, Serafeim-Chrysovalantis Kotoulas, Eleni Mouloudi, Intensive Care Unit, Hippokration General Hospital, Thessaloniki 54642, Greece
Efstathios T Pavlidis, Ioannis N Galanis, Theodoros E Pavlidis, The 2nd Department of Propaedeutic Surgery, Hippokration General Hospital, School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki 54642, Greece
Georgios Katsanos, Georgios Tsoulfas, Department of Transplantation Surgery, Center for Research and Innovation in Solid Organ Transplantation, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of Medicine, Thessaloniki 54642, Greece
Maria Papaioannou, Laboratory of Biological Chemistry, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki 54124, Greece
Co-corresponding authors: Efstathios T Pavlidis and Theodoros E Pavlidis.
Author contributions: Mouratidou C, Pavlidis ET, Katsanos G, Tsoulfas G designed research, performed research and analyzed data; Kotoulas SC, Mouloudi E, Galanis IN contributed new analytic tools, analyzed data and review the paper; Papaioannou M, Niti A contributed to data collection and analyzed data; Pavlidis TE analyzed data review and approved the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Theodoros E Pavlidis, MD, PhD, Emeritus Professor, The 2nd Department of Propaedeutic Surgery, Hippokration General Hospital, School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Konstantinoupoleos 49, Thessaloniki 54642, Greece. pavlidth@auth.gr
Received: December 24, 2024 Revised: March 10, 2025 Accepted: March 20, 2025 Published online: December 20, 2025 Processing time: 226 Days and 3.1 Hours
Abstract
Hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury is an important mechanism of liver failure that occurs in many clinical conditions, including massive hemorrhage, major hepatectomy and liver transplantation, and leads to poor outcomes. The underlying cellular and molecular reactions are extremely complex and not completely understood. Anaerobic metabolism, ATP depletion, intracellular acidosis, calcium overload, mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, activation of Kupffer cells and neutrophils, platelet aggregation, nitric oxide production, activation of the complement system and overexpression of cytokines and chemokines constitute the main pathophysiological actions and pathways for possible therapeutic strategies. Prostaglandins (PGs) are a group of biologically active lipid compounds called eicosanoids with many physiological activities. Prostacyclin (PGI2) is a member of the PGs family with an unstable chemical structure and a very short half-life. PGI2 has potent vasodilating activity, inhibits platelet activation and exerts anti-inflammatory effects. PGI2 has been evaluated in chronic liver disease as a mediator of hepatic stellate cell function, an antiproliferative and antifibrotic agent and a regulator of the hepatic microcirculation. In recent decades, the cytoprotective effects of PGI2 analogs on hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury have been experimentally and clinically studied. Moreover, the administration of synthetic PGI2 analogs to patients who underwent liver transplantation produced very encouraging results. The downregulation of PGE2 production, reduction of neutrophil aggregation in liver lobules, regulation of local microcirculatory homeostasis, improvement in mitochondrial function, alleviation of hepatic oxidative stress, suppression of the c-Jun N-terminal kinase and p38 cascades and downregulation of tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-1β production constitute some of the underlying physiological mechanisms of the beneficial effects of PGI2 on hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury. Thus, PGI2 analogs appear to hold great promise for the management of hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury, but further research is needed.
Core Tip: Hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury is a critical event that affects the outcomes of liver surgery, transplantation and many other major clinical conditions. The reoxygenation of ischemic hepatocytes activates complex inflammatory processes, which lead to oxidative stress that has deleterious local and global consequences. Prostacyclin (PGI2) is a well-known member of the prostaglandin family with potent vasodilative, platelet-inhibiting and anti-inflammatory effects. Several reports have detailed the cytoprotective effects of PGI2 analogs on hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury. In this review, we discuss the underlying mechanisms of hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury and the potential hepatoprotective effects of PGI2 analogs.