CARDIOPROTECTIVE EFFICIENCY OF THE COMBINED APPLICATION OF REMOTE ISCHEMIC PRE- AND POST-CONDITIONING IN RATS IN CASE OF MIOCARDIAL ISCHEMIA/REPERFUSION

The cardioprotective efficacy of the combined use of remote ischemic preconditioning (RIPreC) and remote ischaemic postconditioning (RIPostC) in experimental myocardial ischemia/reperfusion was studied in rats. Experimental myocardial ischemia/reperfusion was reproduced by a 30-minute occlusion of the left coronary artery followed by a period of 120-minute reperfusion. Remote ischemic conditioning was reproduced by short-term occlusion of both femoral arteries followed by reperfusion of the extremities beginning at the following time points: RIPreC– 25 minutes before the end of the myocardial ischemia period, RIPostC - 10 minutes after the end of the myocardial ischemia period, RIPreC + RIPostC– 25 minutes before the start and 10 minutes after the end of myocardial ischemia. It was shown that the combined use of RIPreC and RIPostC had a comparable cardioprotective effect in comparison with each of these methods taken separately. Possible reasons explaining the lack of potentiation of the cardioprotective effect of the combined use of RIPreC with RIPostC can presumably be attributed to: 1) achieving maximum cardioprotection, i.e. the impossibility to further reduce the area of myocardial ischemia, 2) the effect on similar intracellular cardioprotective mechanisms in different conditioning modes.