title: Cardioprotection by Remote Ischemic Preconditioning is Blocked in the Aged Rat Heart in Vivo.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In animal studies, remote ischemic preconditioning (RIPC) is a powerful tool to protect the heart from ischemia and reperfusion injury. Unfortunately, this effect was not seen consistently in recent large clinical trials. Aging was shown to be a confounding factor for the effect of direct preconditioning in experimental studies, but whether aging also can influence the effect of RIPC and thus be responsible for the contradictory clinical effect is unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the cardioprotective effect of RIPC was abolished by aging.
  
  
  METHODS
  Randomized, prospective, blinded laboratory investigation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Experimental laboratory.
  
  
  METHODS
  Male Wistar rats.
  
  
  METHODS
  Anesthetized young (Y, 2-3 months) and aged (A, 22-24 months) male Wistar rats were randomized to 4 groups (n = 6 per group). Control animals (Y-Con and A-Con) were not treated further; RIPC groups (Y-RIPC and A-RIPC) received 4 cycles of 5 minutes of bilateral hind limb ischemia interspersed with 5 minutes reperfusion before myocardial ischemia and reperfusion. All animals underwent 25 minutes of regional myocardial ischemia and 120 minutes of reperfusion. At the end of reperfusion, infarct size was determined by TTC staining.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the control group of young rats, infarct size was 56±9% of the area at risk. RIPC reduced infarct size to 31±9% (p<0.05 v Y-Con). Cardioprotection by RIPC was abolished completely in the aged rat heart (A-RIPC: 62±8%, A-Con: 63±4%; ns).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of the authors' study showed that cardioprotection induced by remote ischemic preconditioning was blocked in the aged rat heart.
authors: Department of Anesthesiology, University Hospital Duesseldorf Moorenstr, Duesseldorf, Germany.
authors: Friederike
authors: F
authors: Behmenburg
authors: Institute of Cardiovascular Physiology, Heinrich-Heine University Duesseldorf, Duesseldorf, Germany.
authors: André
authors: A
authors: Heinen
authors: Department of Anesthesiology, University Hospital Duesseldorf Moorenstr, Duesseldorf, Germany.
authors: Lilli Vom
authors: LV
authors: Bruch
authors: Department of Anesthesiology, Laboratory of Experimental Intensive Care and Anesthesiology, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
authors: Markus W
authors: MW
authors: Hollmann
authors: Department of Anesthesiology, University Hospital Duesseldorf Moorenstr, Duesseldorf, Germany. Electronic address: Ragnar.Huhn@med.uni-duesseldorf.de.
authors: Ragnar
authors: R
authors: Huhn
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D006321:Heart / Q000503:physiopathology*; D019157:Ischemic Preconditioning, Myocardial / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D015428:Myocardial Reperfusion Injury / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
keywords: aging; conditioning; myocardial infarction; remote ischemic preconditioning; reperfusion injury