This work was aimed at evaluating the cardioprotective effects of Castanea sativa Mill. (CSM) bark extract characterized in its phenolic composition by HPLC-DAD-MS analysis. The study was performed using primary cultures of neonatal rat cardiomyocytes to investigate the antioxidant and cytoprotective effects of CSM bark extract and isolated guinea pig left and right atria, left papillary muscle...

RATIONALE Although a cardioprotective function of target of rapamycin (TOR) signaling inhibition has been suggested by pharmacological studies using rapamycin, genetic evidences are still lacking. We explored adult zebrafish as a novel vertebrate model for dissecting signaling pathways in cardiomyopathy. OBJECTIVE We generated the second adult zebrafish cardiomyopathy model induced by doxorub...

Adiponectin is an endogenous insulin-sensitizing hormone which has been found to regulate energy metabolism throughout the body, including the heart. However, low levels of adiponectin are found in patients with diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. Thus it has been suggested to be an independent predictor for cardiovascular risk. Paradoxically, recent studies have also determined...

Coronary microembolization (CME) is a common complication of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for acute coronary syndrome. It leads to myocardial apoptosis and cardiac dysfunction. Nicorandil pretreatment can prevent PCI-related myocardial injury and reduce the incidence of no- or slow-reflow phenomena. This cardioprotective effect is probably attributable to the suppression of CME-indu...

Propofol pretreatment before reperfusion, or propofol conditioning, has been shown to be cardioprotective, while its mechanism is unclear. The current study investigated the roles of endocannabinoid signaling in propofol cardioprotection in an in vivo model of myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury and in in vitro primary cardiomyocyte hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) injury. The results showe...

This study aims to evaluate the cardioprotective effects of astragalin against myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in isolated rat heart. The cardioprotective effects of astragalin on myocardial I/R injury were investigated on Langendorff apparatus. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into five groups. The results showed that astragalin pretreatment improved myocardial...

Evidence shows that women have lower tumour necrosis factor(TNF) levels and lower incidences of heart dysfunction and sepsis-related morbidity and mortality. To identify the cardioprotective effects and precise cellular/molecular mechanisms behind estrogen and estrogen receptors (ERs), we investigated the effects of 17 -estradiol (E2) and estrogen receptor (ER ) on LPS-induced apoptosis by anal...

RATIONALE Integrin-linked kinase (ILK) has been proposed as a novel molecular target that has translational potential in diverse cardiac diseases, since its upregulation promotes a broadly cardioprotective phenotype. However, ILK has been implicated as both a cardioprotective and oncogenic target, which imposes therapeutic constraints that are generally relevant to the translational potential o...

There has been controversy regarding whether ATP-sensitive potassium channel activation protects hearts through adenosine A1 receptor activation or the converse. We addressed this issue by determining the effect of the adenosine A1 receptor antagonist 8-cyclopentyl-1,3-dipropylxanthine (DPCPX) on the cardioprotective activity of the ATP-sensitive potassium channel opener bimakalim. In isolated ...

The present study was performed to evaluate the cardioprotective effects and pharmacological characterization of newly synthesized β-adrenoreceptor antagonists 3-(3-tert-butylamino-2-hydroxypropoxy)-4-methoxybenzaldehyde (PP-36) in the rat model of coronary artery occlusion and reperfusion. Pre-ischemic administration (20 minutes before coronary occlusion) of PP-36 showed cardioprotective effec...