Myocardial stunning and hibernation have been subjects of intense laboratory and clinical investigations to elucidate mechanisms responsible for contractile dysfunction after transient ischemia or chronic hypoperfusion. Considerable evidence has implicated the generation of oxygen-derived free radicals and derangements in myocardial energy metabolism and excitation-contraction coupling as major...

AIMS Left atrial (LA) stunning, the transient impairment of LA function, is responsible for an increased thrombo-embolic risk after cardioversion of atrial fibrillation (AF). Angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) attenuate atrial remodelling in AF and could theoretically influence LA stunning. We studied the effect of Irbesartan on LA stunning. METHODS AND RESULTS We prospectively assigned 50 ...

Thyroid stunning is usually defined as decreased uptake or trapping of radioiodine 131I by normal thyroid tissue or differentiated thyroid cancer after diagnostic administration of 131I. As simple as this definition might be, it is as important to understand the mechanisms by which this phenomenon, if real, is caused. There are 2 possible explanations: Stunning may result either from a reductio...

Animal killing for food production and the related operations are events that may induce pain, stress, fear and other forms of suffering to the animals. To face this problem and guarantee the animal welfare, the EU has adopted the Regulation (EC) N. 1099/2009 on the protection of animals at the time of killing. Electrical water bath stunning is one of the methods used in commercial slaughterhou...

To test the hypothesis that persistent myocardial stunning can lead to hibernating myocardium, 13 pigs were chronically instrumented, and persistent stunning was induced regionally by 6 repetitive episodes of 90-minute coronary stenosis (CS) (30% reduction in baseline coronary blood flow [CBF]) followed by full reperfusion every 12 hours. During the 1st CS, CBF fell from 43+/-2 to 31+/-2 mL/min...

BACKGROUND Previous studies have examined only acute effects of enhanced glucose oxidation on postischemic myocardium. The goal of the present study was to examine prolonged functional recovery subsequent to postischemic, intracoronary pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase inhibition with dichloroacetate (DCA) of stunned myocardium in conscious pigs. METHODS AND RESULTS Myocardial stunning was induce...

Approximately 1.3 billion fish are raised in off-shore and land-based aquaculture systems in the United States each year and slaughtered for food. Numerous methods are used to stun and/or kill farmed fish, but scientific research has found most to be inhumane. Methods such as asphyxiation on ice or air, carbon-dioxide stunning, gill-cutting (exsanguination) without prior stunning, and live chil...

Brief ischemic episodes confer marked protection against myocardial stunning 1-3 d later (late preconditioning [PC] against stunning). The mechanism of this powerful protective effect is poorly understood. Although protein kinase C (PKC) has been implicated in PC against infarction, it is unknown whether it triggers late PC against stunning. In addition, the entire PKC hypothesis of ischemic PC...

The aim of this study was to compare the effects of stunning methods [electrical stunning (ES) vs. gas stunning (GS)] on lipid oxidation in broiler meat and to investigate possible mechanisms of lipid oxidation by measuring plasma variables, muscle reactive oxygen species (ROS), and TBA reactive substance (TBARS) concentrations, muscle fiber ratios, and mRNA levels of avian uncoupling protein (...