Myocardial lipoproteins lipase activity during acute myocardial ischemia in dogs

The influence of an acute myocardial ischemia on lipoprotein lipase (LPL) activity in the myocardium was studied in open chest dogs. Myocardial ischemia was induced by occlusion of a branch of left descending coronary artery and biopsies were taken from non-ischemic and ischemic myocardium. After 60 min of myocardial ischemia a significantly lower LPL activity was found in full wall biopsies of ischemic than of non-ischemic left ventricular myocardium. The ischemia-induced reduction in LPL activity was most pronounced in the endocardial half of the myocardium. Reduction of LPL activity in the ischemic zone might contribute to limitation of the ischemic injury through reduction of FFA extraction from plasma triglycerides.