Epicardial and endocardial coronary microvascular responses: effects of ischemia-reperfusion

To examine whether endocardial microvascular function is preferentially impaired by ischemia and reperfusion, we studied endothelium-dependent responses of epicardial and endocardial coronary microvessels (130-220 microns) from control pigs and from pigs subjected to 1-h regional myocardial ischemia (circumflex occlusion) followed by 1-h reperfusion (n = 8) in vitro using videomicroscopy. In control animals (n = 8), no significant transmural differences were apparent in microvascular responses to the endothelium-dependent agents bradykinin or the calcium ionophore A23187, to the endothelium-independent agent sodium nitroprusside (SNP), or to adenosine. Serotonin caused a slight but statistically insignificant greater relaxation of endocardial than of epicardial microvessels. After ischemia-reperfusion, relaxations to all endothelium-dependent agents (serotonin, bradykinin, A23187) and to adenosine were significantly reduced (p < 0.05 for all agents) as compared with the respective control responses. There were no significant differences between epicardial and endocardial responses in the ischemia-reperfusion group for any of the vasoactive agents. Endothelium-independent responses to SNP were not affected by ischemia-reperfusion, indicating no alteration in the ability of vascular smooth muscle to relax through guanylate cyclase-mediated mechanisms. Control epicardial microvascular responses were examined after endothelial denudation and after pretreatment with NG-monomethyl-L-arginine (L-NMMA), indomethacin, or glibenclamide.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)