Purine metabolite accumulation during myocardial ischemia: adenosine pretreatment versus brief ischemia

Hearts preconditioned by brief ischemia are characterized by a reduced rate of cellular purine metabolite production during subsequent prolonged ischemia; the purpose of this study was to determine if transient exogenous adenosine pretreatment can mimic this phenomenon. The accumulation of interstitial fluid (ISF) purine metabolites during prolonged ischemia in untreated anesthetized dogs (n = 7) was compared to that in a group pretreated with brief ischemia (ischemic preconditioned group; n = 9), a group pretreated with 1.5 micromoles/min intracoronary adenosine (n = 7), and a group pretreated with 100 micromoles/min intracoronary adenosine (n = 7). Ischemic preconditioning was achieved by a 5 min period of left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) occlusion followed by 10 min of reperfusion. The adenosine-treated groups were subjected to 10 min of intracoronary adenosine followed by 10 min of recovery. All animals were exposed to 60 min LAD occlusion followed by 60 min reperfusion. The changes in ISF adenosine and adenosine metabolites were assessed by cardiac microdialysis, using dialysate concentrations as indices of ISF levels. Ischemic preconditioning decreased the rate of dialysate adenosine and total purine accumulation during the prolonged ischemia. Although the two doses of exogenous adenosine bracketed the increase in ISF adenosine seen with ischemic preconditioning, neither adenosine dose was able to attenuate the rate of purine metabolite accumulation during prolonged ischemia. We conclude that exogenous adenosine pretreatment is unable to mimic the reduced ischemia-induced purine efflux that is characteristic of myocytes pretreated with brief ischemia.