Ischemic preconditioning protects against infarction in rat heart

We examined the anti-infarct effect of ischemic preconditioning in the rat heart. All hearts were subjected to 30 min of regional coronary ischemia and 2 h of reperfusion. Infarct size was determined by tetrazolium. The control group had an average infarct size of 31% of the risk zone. Three 5-min cycles of preconditioning ischemia limited the infarct size to 3.7%. Neither the adenosine receptor blocker PD 115,199 nor the ATP-sensitive potassium channel blocker, glibenclamide, could block this protection. Intracoronary adenosine A1-receptor agonist 2-chloro-N6-cyclopentyladenosine offered a significant anti-infarct protection to the isolated rat heart, however. Although one 5-min cycle of preconditioning did not protect the rat heart from infarction (31% infarction in risk zone), it did attenuate arrhythmias. We conclude that 1) the rat heart can be preconditioned, which argues against mitochondrial adenosinetriphosphatase being the mechanism of preconditioning; 2) the threshold for preconditioning is higher in rat than rabbit or dog; 3) a role for adenosine in preconditioning was only partially supported; and 4) a role for ATP-sensitive potassium channels was not supported.