Protective Effect of Taxifolin in The Prevention of Cardiac Tissue Damage in Liver Ischemia and Reperfusion Injury: Experimental Study

Aim: Liver ischemia and reperfusion (I/R) is a serious, irreversible health problem in clinical practice. Taxifolin (Tax) is an easy to obtain and use agent found in maritime pine bark, Douglas fir bark and Siberian larch wood. In this study, we examined the protective efficacy of Taxifolin in the correction of cardiac tissue damage that may develop in liver I/R damage. Methods: In our study, a total of 28 Wistar Albino rats, 8-10 weeks old, weighing 250-300 grams, were used. Group 1 (n=7): control group, Group 2 (n=7): Tax group with 50 mg/kg dose orally for 3 weeks, Group 3 (n=7): Liver I/R group for 30 minutes ischemia and 120 minutes of reperfusion were performed. Group 4 (n=7): Tax+Liver I/R group. Results: In our study, MDA analysis was performed to evaluate oxidative stress. In the statistical analysis of MDA values, we observed that there was a statistically significant difference between the serum MDA values of the Tax group and the Tax+Liver I/R group, and the MDA level of the Tax group was lower (p<0.05). In myocyte damage scoring, we observed that the liver I/R group had the highest damage score, while the damage score of the Tax+Liver I/R group was significantly lower than the I/R group (p<0.05). Conclusion: As a result of our study, we observed that there was an increase in serum MDA levels as a result of liver I/R and histopathological changes occurred in the heart tissue. However, Taxifolin has been successful in ameliorating this situation.