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Postoperative decrease in plasma acyl ghrelin levels after pediatric living donor liver transplantation in association with hepatic damage due to ischemia and reperfusion injury

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Abstract

Purpose

Ghrelin was recently reported to promote recovery from hepatic injury. We hypothesized that it could also be associated with clinical recovery of the transplanted liver from ischemia and reperfusion injury. Our aims were to investigate perioperative ghrelin changes following pediatric living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) and to analyze the association of these changes with postoperative hepatic function.

Methods

We measured plasma acyl ghrelin (AG) concentrations before surgery, at the end of surgery and on postoperative days (PODs) 1, 3 and 7 in 12 children who underwent LDLTs, and, as controls, pre- and post-operatively and on POD1 in 7 children who underwent benign abdominal mass resection. The correlations between the participants’ ghrelin profiles and hepatic function-related data were evaluated.

Results

AG levels significantly declined to 15.6% of preoperative levels after LDLT and almost returned to baseline on POD3. Post-operative AG levels were significantly reduced to a greater extent following LDLT than benign abdominal mass resection. AG levels on POD1 inversely correlated with aspartate aminotransferase levels and cold/total ischemia time (P < 0.05).

Conclusion

These results suggest that reduced AG levels on POD1 may reflect the degree of damage to the transplanted liver due to ischemia and reperfusion injury.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant number 16K09966. We are grateful to M. Kawatsu, Y. Noguchi, R. Matsuura, K. Deguchi, T. Yamamichi, S. Umeda and K. Nakahata for collecting blood samples.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatric Surgery, Hyogo College of Medicine, Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan

    Masahiro Zenitani & Takaharu Oue

  2. Department of Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering, National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center Research Institute, Suita, Osaka, Japan

    Hiroshi Hosoda

  3. Department of Pediatric Surgery, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-2 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan

    Tasuku Kodama, Ryuta Saka, Yuichi Takama, Takehisa Ueno, Yuko Tazuke & Hiroomi Okuyama

  4. Department of Biochemistry, National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center Research Institute, Suita, Osaka, Japan

    Kenji Kangawa

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  1. Masahiro Zenitani
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  2. Hiroshi Hosoda
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  3. Tasuku Kodama
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  4. Ryuta Saka
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  5. Yuichi Takama
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  7. Yuko Tazuke
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  8. Kenji Kangawa
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  9. Takaharu Oue
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Correspondence to Hiroomi Okuyama.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest associated with this manuscript.

Ethical standards

This study was approved by the Ethics Committees of Osaka University Hospital (IRB number: 13439).

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Written informed consent was obtained from the parents or guardians of all patients.

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Zenitani, M., Hosoda, H., Kodama, T. et al. Postoperative decrease in plasma acyl ghrelin levels after pediatric living donor liver transplantation in association with hepatic damage due to ischemia and reperfusion injury. Pediatr Surg Int 35, 709–714 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00383-019-04463-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00383-019-04463-8

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