Abstract：Objective: To study the effects and mechanism of hydrogenrich saline solution on renal ischemia/reperfusion injury(RIRI) in aging rats. Methods: Thirty Sprague-Dawley rats 20 months aged were randomly divided into three groups: sham-operated group, ischemia/reperfusion group(IR), hydrogen-rich saline solution treatment group(H2 group)； each group had 10 rats.Once established the ischemia/reperfusion models,the venous blood samples of each group were taken for determination of serum BUN and Cr.The left kidney were removed for examination such as microscopic pathology by HE stain,MDA,superoxide dismutase(SOD),8-OHDG content,mRNA level of hemeoxygen-1(HO-1) and Caspase-3 and protein expression by RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry. Results: The BUN,Cr,MDA and 8-OHDG of IR group were higher than the sham-operated group and the H2 group(P＜0.05),but the level of SOD in IR group was lower than the sham-operated group and the H2 group(P＜0.01).The pathology change in the H2 group were significantly decreased compared with the IR group,the protein and mRNA expression of Caspase-3 in IR group was higher than that of sham group(P＜0.05) and H2 group (P＜0.01).The expression of HO-1 in H2 group was higher than that of other groups(P＜0.01). Conclusion: The hydrogen-rich saline solution had protective affection to the RIRI and such effect may be related to the anti-oxidant and inhibiting cell apoptosis of the hydrogen.Ischemia reperfusion can cause significant oxidative stress of kidney tissues,causing damage. ［Key words］hydrogen; ischemia/reperfusion injury; aged rats; renal; antioxidant agent
