Superoxide has been implicated in the regulation of endothelial cell adhesion molecule expression and the subsequent initiation of leukocyte-endothelial cell adhesion in different experimental models of inflammation. The objective of this study was to assess the contribution of oxygen radicals to P-selectin expression in a murine model of whole body ischemia-reperfusion, i.e., hemorrhage-resuscitation (H/R), with the use of different strategies that interfere with either the production (allopurinol, CD11/CD18-deficient or p47(phox)-/- mice) or accumulation [intravenous superoxide dismutase (SOD), mutant mice that overexpress SOD] of oxygen radicals. P-selectin expression was quantified in different regional vascular beds by use of the dual-radiolabeled monoclonal antibody technique. H/R elicited a significant increase in P-selectin expression in all vascular beds. This response was blunted in SOD transgenic mice and in wild-type mice receiving either intravenous SOD or the xanthine oxidase inhibitor allopurinol. Mice genetically deficient in either a subunit of NADPH oxidase or the leukocyte adhesion molecule CD11/CD18 also exhibited a reduced P-selectin expression. These results implicate superoxide, derived from both xanthine oxidase and NADPH oxidase, as mediators of the increased P-selectin expression observed in different regional vascular beds exposed to hemorrhage and retransfusion.

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