Pretreatment with hyperoxia reduces in vivo infarct size and cell death by apoptosis with an early and delayed phase of protection.
OBJECTIVE
Exposure to normobaric hyperoxia protects the heart against ischemia-reperfusion injury ex vivo. In the present study, we investigated the effect of the early and late phase of hyperoxia on in vivo myocardial infarction and apoptosis.


METHODS
Rats were exposed to room air preoxygenation (O(2)≥ 95%) followed by regional ischemia (30 min) and 0, 90, 180, and 360 min of reperfusion. Hyperoxic exposure was performed for 120 min either immediately or 24h before coronary occlusion followed by 360-min reperfusion. Infarct size was evaluated by Evans blue/triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining. Apoptosis in the infarcted area was evaluated by terminal deoxy-nucleotidyl transferase-mediated deoxy uridine triphosphate (dUTP) nick end-labeling (TUNEL). Caspase 3 activity was measured by fluorometric enzyme assay, Bcl-2 and Bax protein expression assessed by western blotting and DNA laddering assessed with DNA gel electrophoresis.


RESULTS
The infarct size did not increase with increasing duration of reperfusion. However, apoptosis as evaluated by Bcl-2/Bax ratio, caspase 3 activity, and TUNEL-positive cells increased with increasing time of reperfusion. Both early and delayed pretreatment with hyperoxia reduced infarct size (p = 0.0013, p = 0.046), ameliorated ischemic arrhythmias and increased Bcl-2/Bax ratio (p = 0.015, p = 0.0159). Only hyperoxia immediately before coronary occlusion decreased caspase 3 activity (p = 0.026) and decreased TUNEL-positive staining (p = 0.046) with no visible DNA laddering.


CONCLUSIONS
Detection of myocardial apoptosis increased with prolongation of reperfusion time, as opposed to infarct detection where reperfusion was essential to detect infarction, but the infarct size did not increase with time. Pretreatment with hyperoxia significantly decreased infarct size and apoptotic cell death. Pretreatment, immediately before coronary occlusion, was most cardioprotective.
Foadoddini
Mohsen
M
Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran. alaabasiouni@hotmail.com
Esmailidehaj
Mansour
M
Mehrani
Hosein
H
Sadraei
Seid Homayoon
SH
Golmanesh
Leila
L
Wahhabaghai
Hannaneh
H
Valen
Guro
G
Khoshbaten
Ali
A
D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000209:etiology; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D053148:Caspase 3 / Q000378:metabolism; D053938:DNA Fragmentation; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D019157:Ischemic Preconditioning, Myocardial / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D015428:Myocardial Reperfusion Injury / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000517:prevention & control; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010102:Oxygen Inhalation Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D010313:Partial Pressure; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013997:Time Factors; D051028:bcl-2-Associated X Protein / Q000378:metabolism
C494828:Bax protein, rat; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2; D051028:bcl-2-Associated X Protein; C505410:Casp3 protein, rat; D053148:Caspase 3; D010100:Oxygen