title: Preconditioning the diabetic heart: the importance of Akt phosphorylation.
abstract: Conflicting evidence exists whether diabetic myocardium can be protected by ischemic preconditioning (IPC). The phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)-Akt pathway is important in IPC. However, components of this cascade have been found to be defective in diabetes. We hypothesize that IPC in diabetic hearts depends on intact signaling through the PI3K-Akt pathway to reduce myocardial injury. Isolated perfused Wistar (normal) and Goto-Kakizaki (diabetic) rat hearts were subjected to 1) 35 min of regional ischemia and 120 min of reperfusion with infarct size determined; 2) preconditioning (IPC) using 5 min of global ischemia followed by 10 min of reperfusion performed one, two, or three times before prolonged ischemia; or 3) determination of Akt phosphorylation after stabilization or after one and three cycles of IPC. In Wistar rats, one, two, and three cycles of IPC reduced infarct size 44.7 +/- 3.8% (P < 0.05), 31.4 +/- 4.9% (P < 0.01), and 34.3 +/- 6.1% (P < 0.01), respectively, compared with controls (60.7 +/- 4.5%). However, in diabetic rats only three cycles of IPC significantly reduced infarction to 20.8 +/- 2.6% from 46.6 +/- 5.2% in controls (P < 0.01), commensurate with significant Akt phosphorylation after three cycles of IPC. To protect the diabetic myocardium, it appears necessary to increase the IPC stimulus to achieve the threshold for cardioprotection and a critical level of Akt phosphorylation to mediate myocardial protection.
authors.affiliation: The Hatter Institute and Centre for Cardiology, University College London Hospitals, Grafton Way, London, WC1E 6DB, UK.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tsang
authors.forename: Derek J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Hausenloy
authors.forename: Mihaela M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Mocanu
authors.forename: Richard D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Carr
authors.forename: Derek M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Yellon
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000032:analysis; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000503:physiopathology; D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin / Q000032:analysis; D019157:Ischemic Preconditioning, Myocardial; D008297:Male; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000517:prevention & control; D015425:Myocardial Reperfusion; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D010766:Phosphorylation; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose; D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt; C494920:Akt1 protein, rat