Background—Our laboratory has previously shown that d-opioid receptors are involved in the cardioprotective effect of ischemic preconditioning in the rat heart. However, this class of receptors consists of two subtypes, d1 and d2, and mor k-opioid receptors may also exist in the heart. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to test the hypothesis that ischemic preconditioning is mediat...

Organisms have developed complex endogenous defenses to counter environmental stress. The successful resistance to adversarial conditions, such as calorie or oxygen deprivation, has ensured that the strongest will survive. This lies at the root of preconditioning, that is, what is survived will strengthen; surviving mild forms of injury leads to tolerance of otherwise noxious injury. Preconditi...

The phenomenon of ischemic preconditioning, in which a period of sublethal ischemia can profoundly protect the cell from infarction during a subsequent ischemic insult, has been responsible for an enormous amount of research over the last 15 years. Ischemic preconditioning is associated with two forms of protection: a classical form lasting approximately 2 h after the preconditioning ischemia f...

The aged heart has a diminished functional and adaptive reserve capacity, an increased susceptibility to incur damage (e.g., as a result of ischemia), and a limited practical ability for repair/regeneration. Thus, there has been considerable interest to harness the heart's endogenous capacity to resist such damage, known as ischemic preconditioning (IPC), as well as other cardioprotective mecha...

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death in industrialized countries for people older than 65 years of age. The reasons are still unclear. A reduction of endogenous mechanisms against ischemic insults has been proposed to explain this phenomenon. The "cerebral" ischemic preconditioning mechanism is characterized by a brief episode of ischemia that renders the brain more resistant against su...

Organ damage after reperfusion of previously viable ischemic tissues is defined as ischemia/reperfusion injury. The pathophysiology of ischemia/reperfusion injury involves cellular effect of ischemia, reactive oxygen species and inflammatory cascade. Protection against ischemia/reperfusion injury may be achieved by preconditioning or postconditioning. In this review, we discuss basic mechan...

T otal coronary occlusion without prior development of collateral circulation results in a wavefront of myocardial necrosis, which moves from subendocardium to subepicardium. The early restoration of flow by pharmacological or mechanical means may interrupt the development of necrosis, saving the jeopardized myocardium. Twenty years ago, experimental studies revealed an endogenous defense mecha...

In ischemic preconditioning, a sublethal ischemic insult protects neurons from subsequent ischemia. In organotypic hippocampal slice cultures a sublethal 5-minute hypoxia-hypoglycemia treatment prevented neuronal loss after a 10-minute experimental ischemic (EI) treatment of hypoxia-hypoglycemia. Whereas preconditioning protected against EI given 24 h later, it did not protect when EI was given...

We investigated the effect of sulfhydryl and disulfide reagents on ischemic preconditioning and on sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca release. Isolated working rat hearts were subjected to ischemic preconditioning (three 3-minute periods of global ischemia) or to control aerobic perfusion, which was followed by 30 minutes of global ischemia and 120 minutes of retrograde reperfusion. Necrosis was evaluat...