Cardiovascular disease (CVD), including ischemia reperfusion (IR) injury, remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in industrialized nations. Ongoing research is aimed at uncovering therapeutic interventions against IR injury. Regular exercise participation is recognized as an important lifestyle intervention in the prevention and treatment of CVD and IR injury. More recent understandin...

Whole body hyperthermia induces heat shock proteins (HSPs), which confer cardioprotection. Several opioid receptor subtypes are expressed in the heart and are linked to cardioprotection; however, no one has attempted to link the protection elicited by heat stress (HS) to opioids. Therefore, we investigated the effect of an opiate receptor antagonist, naloxone, on HS-induced cardioprotection. An...

BACKGROUND ATP-sensitive potassium (K(ATP)) channel openers provide cardioprotection in multiple models. Ion flux at an unidentified mitochondrial K(ATP) channel has been proposed as the mechanism. The renal outer medullary kidney potassium channel subunit, potassium inward rectifying (Kir)1.1, has been implicated as a mitochondrial channel pore-forming subunit. We hypothesized that subunit Kir...

Potential long-term cardioprotection was investigated in an extensive experimental study. Lactobacillus cultivation components (LCC) were administered intravenously in anesthetized rats 1, 7, and 21 days before global ischemia (GI). GI was produced by full stop flow in isolated Langendorff-perfused hearts for 20 min and was followed by reperfusion. Control animals were injected with saline. LCC...

BACKGROUND Although remote ischemic stimuli have been shown to elicit cardioprotection against ischemia/reperfusion injury, there is little known about the effects of nonischemic stimuli. We previously described a remote cardioprotective effect of nonischemic surgical trauma (abdominal incision) called remote preconditioning of trauma (RPCT). In the present study, we elucidate mechanisms underl...

AIMS H2S is known to confer cardioprotection; however, the pathways mediating its effects in vivo remain incompletely understood. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the contribution of cGMP-regulated pathways in the infarct-limiting effect of H2S in vivo. METHODS AND RESULTS Anaesthetized rabbits were subjected to myocardial ischaemia (I)/reperfusion (R), and infarct size was det...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Myocardial cAMP elevation confers cardioprotection against ischaemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. cAMP activates two independent signalling pathways, PKA and Epac. This study investigated the cardiac effects of activating PKA and/or Epac and their involvement in cardioprotection against I/R. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH Hearts from male rats were used either for determination of ...

Insulin induces cardioprotection partly via an antiapoptotic effect. However, the optimal timing of insulin administration for the best quality cardioprotection remains unclear. We tested the hypothesis that insulin administered prior to ischemia provides better cardioprotection than insulin administration after ischemia. Isolated rat hearts were prepared using Langendorff method and divided in...

BACKGROUND Hyperthermia increases cardiac tolerance to ischemia/reperfusion injury and activates manganese superoxide dismutase (Mn-SOD), an intrinsic radical scavenger, in myocardium in a biphasic manner. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) induced a biphasic cardioprotection that corresponded to the activation of Mn-SOD. However, a direct association betwe...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to determine whether selective activation of the adenosine A3 receptor reduces infarct size in a Langendorff model of myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury. METHODS Buffer-perfused rabbit hearts were exposed to 30 min regional ischemia and 120 min of reperfusion. Infarct size was measured by tetrazolium staining and normalized for area-at-risk (IA/AAR). ...