title: Prevention of apoptosis by deferoxamine during 4 hours of cold cardioplegia and reperfusion: in vitro study of isolated working rat heart model.
abstract: INTRODUCTION: Heart transplantation is often accompanied by multiple functional alterations, especially in reperfusion period. These are probably related to the reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation catalyzed by transition metals such as iron and copper, and thus the preservation time of the donor hearts is limited. Metabolic protection of the heart grafts is a permanent objective of numerous experiments. Recently, an iron chelator deferoxamine (DFX) was proposed as antioxidant agent for storage solutions in heart grafts. Oxidative stress is also known to mediate the apoptotic cell death in different tissues during ischemia-reperfusion. METHODS: The aim of this study was to evaluate a possible role of DFX in prevention of apoptosis using in vitro model of isolated working rat heart and cold cardioplegia. Two groups of rats were evaluated: (a) group 'DFX 50 &mgr;M' (n=8) and (b) group 'controls' (n=8). Isolated rat hearts were perfused by Krebs-Henseleit buffer (KHB) for 30 min, arrested by cardioplegic solution and stored for 4 h in B21 solution at 4 degrees C. Then, the hearts were reperfused by KHB for 45 min. DFX was added to the cardioplegic and storage solutions and in KHB in reperfusion. Basic functional parameters were evaluated: coronary, aortic, cardiac outputs and heart rate. At the end of reperfusion period a tissue samples were taken from left ventricle and in situ detection of apoptotic cells was performed using an ApopTag kit. RESULTS: DFX significantly reduced the occurrence of apoptotic cells in myocardium (*P<0.05). Hearts treated by 50 &mgr;M of DFX showed also a better recovery of the cardiac output (***P<0.001). The presence of DFX in KHB, cardioplegic and storage solution reduced also the incidence of postischemic arrhythmias and fibrillation's but without statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: Our results give evidence of the protective potential of DFX during cold ischemia and reperfusion, presumably due to its antioxidant properties. The significant decrease of apoptosis in hearts treated by DFX could be considered as an existence of close link between oxidative stress and apoptotic death promotion in ischemia-reperfusion injury.
authors.affiliation: Clinic of Functional Diagnostics and Rehabilitation (KFDR), St. Anna Faculty Hospital, Masaryk University of Brno, Pckarská 53, 656 91, Brno, Czech Republic
authors.forename: Petr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dobsák
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Siegelova
authors.forename: J E.
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Wolf
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rochette
authors.forename: J C.
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Eicher
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vasku
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kuchtickova
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Horky