Peritoneal effects of intravenous iron sucrose administration in rats

Intravenous iron supplementation is commonly used in uremic patients treated with peritoneal dialysis. Infusion of iron compounds results in various systemic noxious effects, mainly because of its prooxidant and proinflammatory actions. The authors studied how the intravenous infusion of iron sucrose (IS) affects intraperitoneal homeostasis in rats undergoing acute peritoneal dialysis. Experiments were performed on Wistar rats, which were infused intravenously with IS in a dose 10 mg/kg body weight or with normal saline in the controls. Simultaneously, 4-hour acute peritoneal dialysis was started. At the end of the dialysis, systemic and peritoneal inflammatory reaction and peritoneal permeability were evaluated. Compared with controls, rats exposed to IS showed increased dialysate iron concentration by +70%, P < 0.001, and in the differential cell count, more eosinophils (+113%, P < 0.05) and fewer macrophages (-16%, P < 0.05) existed. In in vitro conditions, macrophages obtained from IS-treated rats released more tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α; +173%, P < 0.05) upon stimulation with endotoxin. Additionally increased (+73%, P < 0.01) dialysate elastase activity was found in IS-treated animals. Rats infused with IS demonstrated increased peritoneal permeability to total protein (+60%, P < 0.001) as compared with control animals. When rats with simultaneous peritonitis received intravenous IS, ex vivo isolated peritoneal leukocytes generated more free radicals (+73%, P < 0.05) than did cells harvested from control animals. It has been concluded that intravenous infusion of IS affects the intraperitoneal homeostasis in rats, moving it toward the inflammatory state. These changes may contribute to peritoneal damage.