To the Editor: Drenger et al. have demonstrated that sevoflurane postconditioning is cancelled in the rat heart with type 1 diabetes mellitus and that this adverse effect by glucose intolerance cannot be restored by the adjustment of blood glucose using insulin. This study appears to have many questions regarding the mechanisms of insulin’s action, whereas we would congratulate their impressive...

BACKGROUND Ischemic postconditioning (IPostC), has been proposed as a useful approach to reduce infarct size in all species, but its clinical utility remains unclear. OBJECTIVE To investigate the role played by the protocol used on the efficacy of IPostC in protecting the diseased human myocardium. METHODS Myocardial atrial samples from patients were subjected to a 90 min ischemia/120 min r...

Myocardial injury is increased in the aged heart following ischemia-reperfusion (ISC-REP) compared to adult hearts. Intervention at REP with ischemic postconditioning decreases injury in the adult heart by attenuating mitochondrial driven cell injury. Unfortunately, postconditioning is ineffective in aged hearts. Blockade of electron transport at the onset of REP with the reversible inhibitor a...

Ischemic postconditioning has been demonstrated to alleviate brain ischemia/reperfusion-induced neuronal apoptosis; however, the protective mechanisms underlying the improved and more convenient method of remote ischemic postconditioning (RIPostC) are only recently beginning to be elucidated. Mitochondria are important in the regulation of cell apoptosis, and the B‑cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl‑2) homol...

INTRODUCTION Cold storage of organs for preservation and transplantation is reaching its limits especially with extended criteria for heart beating donors and donation after cardiac death. We will discuss recent findings and perspectives in normothermic kidney preservation. METHODS A literature review was performed from original articles and syntheses selected by the search engine PubMed. Key...

Inhibition of mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) opening by cyclosporin A or ischemic postconditioning attenuates lethal reperfusion injury. Its impact on major post-myocardial infarction events, including worsening of left ventricular (LV) function and death, remains unknown. We sought to determine whether pharmacological or postconditioning-induced inhibition of mPTP opening mi...

To the Editor: Drenger et al. have demonstrated that sevoflurane postconditioning is cancelled in the rat heart with type 1 diabetes mellitus and that this adverse effect by glucose intolerance cannot be restored by the adjustment of blood glucose using insulin. This study appears to have many questions regarding the mechanisms of insulin’s action, whereas we would congratulate their impressive...

Two endogenous mechanisms of neuroprotection have been recently described: ischemic precondi-tioning and ischemic postconditioning. In fact, the concept of tolerance has been introduced long time ago and, remaining in the modern era of medicine, in 1927, the Austrian physician Julius Wagner-Juaregg was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine for his research on pyrotherapy to treat psychiatric diso...