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Updated: Jul 25, 2026
Ferric Chloride-induced Canine Carotid Artery Thrombosis: A Large Animal Model of Vascular Injury
Published on: September 7, 2018
Nonanticoagulant heparin prevents coronary endothelial dysfunction after brief ischemia-reperfusion injury in the dog
P C Kouretas1, Y D Kim, P A Cahill
1Departments of Surgery, Physiology and Biophysics, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA.
Background:
Coronary endothelial dysfunction after brief ischemia-reperfusion (IR) remains a clinical problem. We investigated the role of heparin and N-acetylheparin, a nonanticoagulant heparin derivative, in modulating coronary endothelial function after IR injury, with an emphasis on defining the role of the nitric oxide (NO)-cGMP pathway in the heparin-mediated effect.
Methods And Results:
Male mongrel dogs were surgically instrumented, and the effects of both bovine heparin and N-acetylheparin on coronary endothelial vasomotor function, expressed as percent change from baseline flow after acetylcholine challenge, were studied after 15 minutes of regional ischemia of the left anterior descending artery (LAD) followed by 120 minutes of reperfusion. In dogs treated with placebo (saline), coronary vasomotor function was significantly (P
Conclusions:
These results suggest that heparin preserves coronary endothelial function after brief IR injury by a mechanism independent of its anticoagulant activity and that the effect of heparin may be mediated in part by activation of the NO-cGMP pathway.
