The angiopoietins and Tie receptors are involved in blood vessel formation. The role of the angiopoietin/Tie receptor system in myocardial ischaemia/reperfusion is not well known. To investigate the participation of angiopoietins and Tie receptors in myocardial ischaemia/reperfusion, adult Wistar rats were studied in which the left coronary artery was ligated for 30 min, followed by reperfusion...

BACKGROUND Extremity injury with ischaemia is the most common pattern of vascular trauma and is a challenge for surgeons who must make decisions about the timing and mechanism of limb reperfusion. In modern military conflicts, effective use of limb tourniquets and rapid transport of the injured have increased the number of casualties who reach a medical service with potentially survivable vascu...

BACKGROUND Various types of chemokines/cytokines play important roles in ischaemia/reperfusion injury in kidneys. However, the roles of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) in the inflammatory processes of renal ischaemia/reperfusion injury remain to be investigated. We explored the effect of FR167653, a specific inhibitor of p38 MAPK, on renal ischaemia/reperfusion injury in mice. MET...

AIMS We investigated whether hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF-1 alpha) plays a role in the acute phase of ischaemic preconditioning (IPC). METHODS AND RESULTS Hearts from wild-type (WT) mice and mice heterozygous for a null allele at the locus encoding HIF-1 alpha (HET) were subjected to IPC (10-min ischaemia/5 min reperfusion, or two cycles of 5 min ischaemia/5 min reperfusion), followe...

Protecting the heart from ischaemiaand reperfusioninduced injury represents the greatest challenge of cardiology, since myocardial infarction is the major cause of mortality in industrialized countries. Research on cardiac protection has a long history in the discovery of new principles of protection, replete with triumphs but also broken dreams with respect to their clinical application. Treat...

rIPC (remote ischaemic preconditioning) is a phenomenon whereby short periods of ischaemia and reperfusion of a tissue or organ (e.g. mesentery, kidney) can protect a distant tissue or organ (e.g. heart) against subsequent, potentially lethal, ischaemia. We, and others, have shown that transient limb ischaemia can provide potent myocardial protection experimentally and clinically during cardiac...