Effect and mechanism of propofol in hepatic ischemia/reperfusion injury of rat
Authors: T Hu
W-Y Chen
L Wei
M Jin
B-B Pan
Y-X Tang
G-Y Kong
Journal: European review for medical and pharmacological sciences (2017)
Discipline: PHARMACOLOGY & TOXICOLOGY
Keywords: Hepatic ischemia/reperfusion injury; propofol; apoptosis; pro-inflammatory factors; PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway
Affiliations: Department of Anesthesiology, Hunan Provincial People's Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan Province, China. .

Abstract:  Objective: Hepatic ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury remains to be one of the most common clinical diseases. This study aimed to explore the potential effect and mechanism of propofol in protecting rat liver from I/R injury. Materials and methods: The hepatic I/R model was established in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats by perfusing the liver with heparinized cold saline through the portal vein for 20 min. The rats were then received a 100 mg/kg/d propofol administration for the continuously 10 days. The hepatic function indexes of ALT, AST, and GGT were detected by ELISA. The apoptosis of hepatic cells was assessed by TUNEL analysis, and Bax and Bcl-2 expression changes were detected by qRT-PCR and Western blotting. In addition, serum pro-inflammatory factors and the signaling pathway-related protein expressions were detected. Results: Propofol markedly attenuated the increases of ALT, AST, and GGT induced by I/R. Propofol reduced I/R-induced apoptosis and pro-inflammatory factors secretion. Furthermore, propofol could promote the expression of phosphorylated (p)-AKT and inhibited the expression of p-mTOR. Conclusions: Propofol protects hepatic I/R injury partly by reducing apoptosis and reducing the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, which is possibly involved in the modulation of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway. All these data suggest that propofol may play certain positive roles in protecting the liver from I/R injury. 

Retracted: Yes

PubPeer comments:
 ![file] Plagiarising [a comment by Elisabeth Bik] : This paper belongs to a set of over 400 papers (as per February 2020) that share very similar Western blots with tadpole-like shaped bands, the same background pattern, and striking similarities in title structures, paper layout, bar graph design, and - in a subset - flow cytometry panels. Despite these similarities, these papers are authored by researchers from different departments and institutes, with almost no overlap in authors. The list of these papers is available here: https: docs.google.com spreadsheets d 1KXqTAyl4j-jVorFPMD2XRpr76LcIKJ0CVyIvRj0exYQ edit?usp=sharing A more detailed description of this set of papers, suspected to all be generated by a common source, a paper mill , can be found here: - https: forbetterscience.com 2020 01 24 the-full-service-paper-mill-and-its-chinese-customers (January 2020) - https: scienceintegritydigest.com 2020 02 21 the-tadpole-paper-mill (February 2020) The same paper mill has been described in these papers: - Jana Christopher - Systematic fabrication of scientific images revealed - FEBS Letters (2018) - https: febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com doi full 10.1002 1873-3468.13201 - Jennifer A Byrne and Jana Christopher - Digital magic, or the dark arts of the 21st centuryu2014how can journals and peer reviewers detect manuscripts and publications from paper mills? - FEBS Letters (2020) - https: febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com doi full 10.1002 1873-3468.13747 , 
 This paper has been retracted ...  has been withdrawn from the authors due to some technical reasons in the preparation of figures. https: doi.org 10.26355 eurrev_202106_26115 or https: www.europeanreview.org article 26115 Clearly the editors went the extra mile on this one... ,