Figure 6.

Ischemic preconditioning decreases caspase activation and apoptosis in the lung after small-for-size liver transplantation. Lungs were harvested 38 h after liver transplantation. Cleaved caspase-8 and -3 (CC8 and CC3) and actin were measured by immunoblotting. Representative immunoblots are shown in (A) and quantified by densitometry in (B and C). TUNEL-positive cells were counted in 10 random fields per slide using a 20X objective lens (D). Sham, lungs from sham-operated rats; FSG, lungs from full-size graft recipients; QSG, lungs from quarter-size graft recipients; QSG + IP, lungs from ischemic-preconditioned quarter-size graft recipients. Values are means ± SEM. Group sizes were 4 per group. a, P<0.05 vs sham operation; b, P<0.05 vs FSG; c, P<0.05 vs QSG.