Introduction to ischemia–reperfusion injury

Abstract The extent of cell dysfunction, injury, and/or death is dependent on both the intensity and the duration of ischemia. In this aspect, revascularization and restoration of blood flow as soon as possible remains the mainstay of all current therapeutic strategies for ischemia. However, not all organs demonstrate equal susceptibility to ischemia. Moreover, it now seems clear that reperfusion, although necessary to reestablish delivery of oxygen and nutrients to support cell metabolism and remove potentially damaging by-products of cellular metabolism, can elicit pathogenetic processes that exacerbate injury due to ischemia per se and may produce tissue injury in distant organs as a result of mediators released into the bloodstream, draining to vascularized tissues and subsequent delivery to remote organs. There are multiple events involving ischemia reperfusion–related injury.