ABSTRACT: Ischemic preconditioning (IPC) and remote ischemic perconditioning (RIPer) confer protective effects against liver ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI), but data about RIPer applying in liver transplantation is lacking. The study aimed to evaluate whether the combination of IPC and RIPer provides reinforced protective effects. C57BL/6 mice (160 pairs) were allocated into four groups: control, subjected to liver transplantation only; IPC, donor hilar was clamped for 10?min followed by 15?min of reperfusion; RIPer, three cycles of occlusion (5?min) and opening (5?min) of femoral vascular bundle were performed before reperfusion; IPC?+?RIPer, donors and recipients were subjected to IPC and RIPer respectively. Liver tissues were obtained for histological evaluation, TUNEL staining, malondialdehyde assays, GSH-Px assays, and NF-?B p65 protein and Bcl-2/Bax mRNA analyses. Blood samples were used to evaluate ALT, AST, TNF-?, NOx levels and flow cytometry. We found that protective efficacy of RIPer is less than IPC in terms of ALT, TNF-?, GSH-Px and NOx at 2?h postoperation, but almost equivalent at 24?h and 72?h postoperation. Except for Suzuki scores, ALT, Bcl-2/Bax mRNA ratio, other indices showed that combined treatment brought enhanced attenuation in IRI, compared with single treatment, through additive effects on antioxidation, anti-apoptosis, modulation of microcirculation disturbance, and inhibition of innate immune response. This study suggested a combined strategy that could enhance protection against IRI in clinical liver transplantation, otherwise, provided a hint that RIPer's mechanism might be partly or totally different from IPC in humoral pathway.