Measurement of bioimpedance and cell viability during ischemia-reperfusion in the rat liver

During liver resection and liver transplant, liver is damaged by ischemia-reperfusion injury. Until now, there is no approved method to measure or predict the extent of liver injury during the operation. This is the preliminary study to make the real time monitoring system by quantification of bioimpedance and ischemia-reperfusion injury in liver. Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to different periods of 70% partial hepatic ischemia (30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes ischemia) and reperfusion. We measured changes of liver tissue bioimpedance (120 Hz - 100 KHz) every five minutes. Cell viability was assessed by metabolic capacity of fatty acid (palmitic acid metabolic rate), ATP content and histological examination (H/E and TUNEL stain) at every 30 minutes interval during ischemia