title: Acute ethanol exposure increases the susceptibility of the donor hearts to ischemia/reperfusion injury after transplantation in rats.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Many donor organs come from youths involved in alcohol-related accidental death. The use of cardiac allografts for transplantation from donors after acute poisoning is still under discussion while acute ethanol intoxication is associated with myocardial functional and morphological changes. The aims of this work were 1) to evaluate in rats the time-course cardiac effects of acute ethanol-exposure and 2) to explore how its abuse by donors might affect recipients in cardiac pump function after transplantation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Rats received saline or ethanol (3.45 g/kg, ip). We evaluated both the mechanical and electrical aspects of cardiac function 1 h, 6 h or 24 h after injection. Plasma cardiac troponin-T and glucose-levels were measured and histological examination of the myocardium was performed. In addition, heart transplantation was performed, in which donors received ethanol 6 h or 24 h prior to explantation. Graft function was measured 1 h or 24 h after transplantation. Myocardial TBARS-concentration was measured; mRNA and protein expression was assessed by quantitative real-time PCR and Western blot, respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ethanol administration resulted in decreased load-dependent (-34 ± 9%) and load-independent (-33 ± 12%) contractility parameters, LV end-diastolic pressure and elevated blood glucose levels at 1 h, which were reversed to the level of controls after 6 h and 24 h. In contrast to systolic dysfunction, active relaxation and passive stiffness are slowly recovered or sustained during 24 h. Moreover, troponin-T-levels were increased at 1 h, 6 h and 24 h after ethanol injection. ST-segment elevation (+47 ± 10%), elongated QT-interval (+38 ± 4%), enlarged cardiomyocyte, DNA-strand breaks, increased both mRNA and protein levels of superoxide dismutase-1, glutathione peroxydase-4, cytochrome-c-oxidase and metalloproteinase-9 were observed 24 h following ethanol-exposure. After heart transplantation, decreased myocardial contractility and relaxation, oxidative stress and altered protein expression were observed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results demonstrate acute alcohol abuse increases the susceptibility of donor hearts to ischemia/reperfusion in a rat heart transplant model even though the global contractile function recovers 6 h after ethanol-administration.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac Surgery, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Shiliang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Sevil
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Korkmaz
authors.forename: Sivakkanan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Loganathan
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Weymann
authors.forename: Tamás
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Radovits
authors.forename: Enikő
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Barnucz
authors.forename: Kristóf
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hirschberg
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hegedüs
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tao
authors.forename: Szabolcs
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Páli
authors.forename: Gábor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Veres
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Karck
authors.forename: Gábor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Szabó
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000431:Ethanol / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006321:Heart / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000503:physiopathology; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006439:Hemodynamics / Q000187:drug effects; D008297:Male; D015428:Myocardial Reperfusion Injury / Q000209:etiology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology; D009206:Myocardium / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D011917:Rats, Inbred Lew; D015427:Reperfusion Injury / Q000209:etiology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology; D017392:Thiobarbituric Acid Reactive Substances / Q000378:metabolism; D019210:Troponin I / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D017392:Thiobarbituric Acid Reactive Substances; D019210:Troponin I; D000431:Ethanol