Investigation of the effect of safranal and crocin pre-treatment on hepatic injury induced by infrarenal aortic occlusion

Abstract Ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury of the liver is an unresolved problem that occurs during certain surgical approaches, including hepatic, cardiac and aortic operations. In this study we aimed to investigate whether crocin and safranal had protective effects on liver IR injury induced in an infrarenal aortic clamping (IRAC) model. Male Wistar-Albino rats (n = 32) were divided into four groups with 8 animals each as follows: Sham, IR, IR + crocin, and IR + safranal. The infrarenal aorta (IRA) was clamped for 60 min for the ischemic period and allowed to reperfuse for 120 min. Blood and tissue samples were collected for biochemical, histological and immunohistological analysis. Plasma alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) were found to be significantly higher in the IR group than the sham group (respectively; p = 0.015, p