Objective: To investigate the effect of
Mailuoning injection(脉络宁注射液) on nitric oxide (NO) and nitric oxide synthase (NOS)
in rabbits with extremity ischemia/reperfusion injury. Methods: The experimental models of
extremity ischemia/reperfusion injury were established in 20 healthy adult rabbits that were randomly divided into control group and experimental group. Intravenously, normal saline was infused into rabbits of the control group and
Mailuoning injection, in experimental group just before blood reperfusion . Before ischemia, 2 hours after ischemia, 1 hour after reperfusion and 4 hours after reperfusion, the samples of blood were taken from the femoral veins respectively for measurements of NO and NOS in serum. Meanwhile the tibialis anterior muscles were harvested for the ultrastructure examinations. Results: The content of NO in serum was obviously increased after ischemia and decreased after reperfusion in both two groups(both P <0 05). NOS activity was decrease significantly 2 hours after ischemia, and significantly increased after reperfusion, especially in the experimental group ( P <0 05 or P <0 01). The skeletal muscle injury of the experimental group, after reperfusion, was of a mild degree than that of control group in electron microscope examinations. Conclusion: The Mailuoning injection is able to inhibit excessive production of NO induced by extremity ischemia/reperfusion , and enhance NOS activity, however, it possesses protective effect on extremity ischemia/reperfusion injury.