Continuous spinal cord stimulation reduced cardiac ischaemia/reperfusion injury in a rat model.
BACKGROUND
Recent studies have showed that pretreatment with short episode spinal cord stimulation (SCS) could reduce myocardial infarct size after transient anterior coronary artery occlusion. The aim of this study was to investigate whether continuous SCS could also provide protection against cardiac ischaemia/reperfusion (IR) injury.


METHODS
After pre-implantation of stimulating electrode, Sprague-Dawley rats with or without pretreatment by a five consecutive days of SCS were assigned into SCS and control groups (CTRL). Additional rats without electrode implantation were allocated into the IR and SHAM groups. Twenty-four hours after pretreatment, the hearts were basal perfused on Langendorff apparatus for 30 min and then subjected to 50-min ischaemia and 120-min reperfusion. Left ventricular (LV) function, infarct size, myocardial enzyme release, and myocardial apoptosis were measured.


RESULTS
Pretreatment with continuous SCS significantly improved LV function and reduced infarct size and cardiac enzyme release. The myocardial apoptosis in the SCS group was also remarkably inhibited. In addition, the expressions of Bax and caspase-3 were markedly reduced, and the expression of Bcl-2 and ratios of Bcl-2/Bax were greatly enhanced after continuous pretreatment.


CONCLUSIONS
Pretreatment with continuous SCS provided prolonged protection against cardiac I/R injury and the underlying mechanism included regulation of the apoptosis-related proteins.
Department of Anesthesiology and Translational Neuroscience Center, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
Yanhua
Y
Qiu
Tao
T
Li
Hui
H
Li
Yunxia
Y
Zuo
D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004599:Electric Stimulation Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D009124:Muscle Proteins / Q000097:blood; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000097:blood / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000517:prevention & control; D015428:Myocardial Reperfusion Injury / Q000097:blood / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D009206:Myocardium / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013116:Spinal Cord; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left
D015415:Biomarkers; D009124:Muscle Proteins