The Effect of Botulinum Toxin A on Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury in a Rat Model

Abstract EN

Introduction.

While studies using various materials to overcome ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury are becoming increasingly common, studies on the effects of botulinum toxin A (BoTA) on IR injury in musculocutaneous flaps are still limited.

The purpose of this study was to examine our hypotheses that BoTA provide protection of musculocutaneous flap from ischemia-reperfusion injury.

Method.

Five days after pretreatment injection (BoTA versus normal saline), a right superior musculocutaneous flap (6 × 1.5 cm in size) was made.

Ischemia was created by a tourniquet strictly wrapping the pedicle containing skin and muscle for 8 h.

After ischemia, the tourniquet was cut, and the musculocutaneous flap was reperfused.

Results.

The overall survival percentage of flap after 8 h of pedicle clamping followed by reperfusion was 87.32±3.67% in the control group versus 95.64±3.25% in the BoTA group (p<0.001).

The BoTA group had higher expression of CD34, HIF-1α, VEGF, and NF-kB comparing to control group in qRT-PCR analysis.

Conclusions.

In this study, we found that local BoTA preconditioning yielded significant protection against IR injury in a rat musculocutaneous flap model.