Short periods of ischemia followed up by reperfusion are known to protect the heart against
injury caused by a subsequent sustained ischemia. This phenomenon, known as ischemic
preconditioning, has also been recently shown to reduce ischemic liver damage, but the
mechanisms involved are still unknown. By using isolated hepatocytes as an in vitro model
of liver preconditioning, we have investigated the possible effect of preconditioning on
intracellular pH and Na+ homeostasis. Freshly isolated rat hepatocytes were preconditioned …