Role of leucocytes in damage to the vascular endothelium during ischaemia-reperfusion injury

During this investigation, a model of tourniquet-induced forearm ischaemia-reperfusion injury is employed to investigate the role of leucocytes in damage to the vascular endothelium during ischaemia-reperfusion injury. Leucocyte entrapment is investigated by measuring the concentration of leucocytes in venous blood leaving the arm. Neutrophil and monocyte leucocyte subpopulations are isolated by density gradient centrifugation techniques. Cell surface expression of CD11b and the intracellular production of hydrogen peroxide are measured via flow cytometry. Plasma concentrations of elastase and von Willebrand factor (vWF) are measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbemt assay (ELISA) techniques. During ischaemia-reperfusion, there was an increase in CD11b cell surface expression on neutrophils (P=0.040) and monocytes (P=0.049), and a decrease in peripheral blood leucocytes (P=0.019). There was an increase in the intracellular production of hydrogen peroxide by leucocyte subpopulations (P=0.027 [neutrophils], P=0.091 [monocytes]) and in the plasma elastase concentration (P=0.05). There was also a trend to increasing plasma concentration of vWF (P=0.0562), which was measured as a marker of endothelial damage. Ischaemia-reperfusion results in increased adhesiveness, entrapment and activation of leucocytes. Even following a mild ischaemic insult, this leucocyte response was followed immediately by evidence of endothelial damage. These results may have important implications for understanding the development of chronic diseases that involve mild ischaemic episodes.