Protective effect of selenium on intussusception-induced ischemia/reperfusion intestinal oxidative injury in rats

Aim: To evaluate the protective effect of selenium on intestinal ischemia-reperfusion injury due to intussusception. Materials and methods: Forty Wistar albino rats were allocated to 4 equal groups (n = 10). After anesthetization, 2 cm of intestinal segment, 20 cm proximal to the ileocecal valve, was removed in the control group (CG). In the intussusception group (ING), intussusception was performed 20 cm proximal to the ileocecal valve by pushing the proximal intestinal segment distally with a stylet, and 2 cm of intestinal segment was removed 4 h later. Intussusception was reduced and a 2 cm segment was removed after another 4 h period in the intussusception-reduction group (IRG).The selenium group (SG) received 0.2 mg kg-1of selenium in 10 mL of 0.9% NaCl solution intraperitoneally 20 min before reduction and segments were removed 4 h thereafter. Intestinal tissues were evaluated for histopathological grades and oxidative injury markers. Results: Histopathologic evaluations among the 4 groups did not reveal a significant difference (P 0.05). Althoughcatalase activity was decreased in all groups, increased activity was found in SG compared with IRG (P 0.05). GSH-Pxand SOD activities were also found to have decreased in ING and IRG (P 0.05). CG and SG had no difference in GSH-Px and SOD activities (P 0.05). Malondialdehyde (MDA) activities did not differ between CG and SG, but the MDA level was increased in ING and IRG when compared with CG (P 0.05).Conclusion: Although selenium prevents oxidative injury by increasing the antioxidant enzyme activity in experimental intussusception, similar effects on histopathologic findings were not detected.