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Postconditioning with vagal stimulation attenuates local and systemic inflammatory responses to myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury in rats

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Abstract

Objective

To assess effects of postconditioning with the vagal stimulation (VS) on the local and systematic inflammatory responses to acute myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI).

Methods

Sixty male Sprague–Dawley rats were randomly allocated into three groups: sham group, ischemia reperfusion group (IR group), and postconditioning with the VS group (POVS group). Serum levels of inflammatory cytokines during reperfusion and myocardial levels of inflammatory cytokines in both ischemic and non-ischemic regions at the end of the experiment were assayed. The infarct size was assessed by Evans blue and triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining.

Results

The infarct size was significantly reduced in the POVS group compared to the IR group. Serum levels of TNF-α at 30, 60, and 120 min of reperfusion and serum levels of HMGB-1, ICAM-1, IL-1, and IL-6 at 120 min of reperfusion were significantly lower in the POVS group than in the IR group. Myocardial levels of TNF-α, HMGB-1, ICAM-1, IL-1, and IL-6 in both ischemic and non-ischemic regions were also significantly reduced in the POVS group compared with the IR group.

Conclusions

Postconditioning with the VS can significantly attenuate the local and systemic inflammatory responses to myocardial IRI, and provide an obvious cardioprotection.

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Acknowledgments

This study is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 81170128) and the Peking Union Medical College Fund for Young Scholars. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Conflict of interest

All authors have no potential conflicts of interest for this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesiology, Plastic Surgery Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, 33 Ba-Da-Chu Road, Shi-Jing-Shan District, 100144, Beijing, China

    Qiang Wang, Yi Cheng, Fu-Shan Xue, Yu-Jing Yuan, Jun Xiong, Rui-Ping Li, Xu Liao & Jian-Hua Liu

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  1. Qiang Wang
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Correspondence to Fu-Shan Xue.

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Responsible Editor: Michael Parnham.

Q. Wang and Y. Cheng contributed equally to this work.

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Wang, Q., Cheng, Y., Xue, FS. et al. Postconditioning with vagal stimulation attenuates local and systemic inflammatory responses to myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury in rats. Inflamm. Res. 61, 1273–1282 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00011-012-0527-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00011-012-0527-6

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