Backtable heat-enhanced preconditioning: a simple and effective means of improving function of heart transplants.

Background: Cardiac harvest teams are usually committed to immediately transfer the explanted donor heart into its cold storage solution. We tested the opposite hypothesis that a brief prestorage episode of heat-enhanced ischemic preconditioning could be protective.

Methods: Fifty-three isolated isovolumic rat hearts underwent 4 hours of cold (4 degrees C) storage in the Celsior preservation solution and 2 hours of reperfusion.

Ischemic preconditioning with opening of mitochondrial adenosine triphosphate-sensitive potassium channels or Na/H exchange inhibition: which is the best protective strategy for heart transplants?

Objective: This study was designed to compare ischemic preconditioning with opening of mitochondrial adenosine triphosphate-sensitive potassium channels and Na(+)/H(+) exchange inhibition in an isolated heart model of cold storage, simulating the situation of cardiac allografts.

Methods: Sixty-seven isolated isovolumic buffer-perfused rat hearts were arrested with and stored in Celsior solution (Imtix-Sangstat) at 4 degrees C for 4 hours before a 2-hour reperfusion. Group I hearts served as controls and were arrested with and stored in Celsior solution.

Cardiac functional improvement by a human Bcl-2 transgene in a mouse model of ischemia/reperfusion injury.

Background: Apoptosis has been shown to contribute to myocardial reperfusion injury. It has been suggested that, in reducing the apoptotic component within the ischemic area at risk, Bcl-2 overexpression could lead to a ventricular function improvement.

Methods: Transgenic mice overexpressing the anti-apoptotic human Bcl-2 cDNA in heart were subjected to a 1-h left coronary artery occlusion followed by a 24-h reperfusion.

Opening of mitochondrial potassium channels: a new target for graft preservation strategies?

Background: This study was designed to assess the protective effects of the mitochondrial adenosine triphosphate-sensitive potassium channel (KATP) opener diazoxide as an additive to heart preservation solution.

Methods: Forty isolated isovolumic buffer-perfused rat hearts were divided into four groups. Groups I and III hearts were arrested with and cold-stored in Celsior solution for 4 hr and 10 hr, respectively.

Different regulation of cardiac and renal corticosteroid receptors in aldosterone-salt treated rats: effect of hypertension and glucocorticoids.

This study analysed the regulation of cardiac mineraloreceptor (MR) and glucoreceptor (GR) in aldosterone-salt treatment (AST). AST causes hypertension, left ventricle (LV) hypertrophy and decreases plasma corticosterone level. Ribonuclease protection assay and Western blot analysis showed a rise of MR mRNA (1.

Cardiac aldosterone production and ventricular remodeling.

An intracardiac production of aldosterone has been recently reported in rat. This production is increased both acutely and chronically by angiotensin II, observations suggesting that the heart contains a steroidogenic system that is regulated similarly to the adrenal one. Cardiac production of aldosterone is small compared with that of the adrenal, raising the question of its function in normal conditions.

Preconditioning by mitochondrial ATP-sensitive potassium channel openers: An effective approach for improving the preservation of heart transplants.

Background: Recent studies have implicated mitochondrial ATP-sensitive potassium (K(ATP)) channels in the cardioprotective effects of ischemic preconditioning. The present study used a model of prolonged cold heart storage to assess whether the mitochondrial K(ATP) opener diazoxide could reproduce the protection conferred by ischemic preconditioning.

Methods And Results: Fifty-four isolated rat hearts were arrested with and stored in Celsior at 4 degrees C for 10 hours before a 2-hour reperfusion.

[Role of cardiac aldosterone in post-infarction ventricular remodeling in rats].

Synthesis of aldosterone (Aldo) and corticosterone (B) has been recently reported in rat heart. However, regulation of this synthesis in pathophysiological states remains unknown. Thus, this study aimed to analyze effects of a one-month myocardial infarction (MI) on cardiac steroidogenic system.

Activation of cardiac aldosterone production in rat myocardial infarction: effect of angiotensin II receptor blockade and role in cardiac fibrosis.

Background: This study analyzed the regulation and the role of the cardiac steroidogenic system in myocardial infarction (MI).

Methods And Results: Seven days after MI, rats were randomized to untreated infarcted group or spironolactone- (20 and 80 mg x kg-1 x d-1), losartan- (8 mg x kg-1 x d-1), spironolactone plus losartan-, and L-NAME- (5 mg x kg-1 x d-1) treated infarcted groups for 25 days. Sham-operated rats served as controls.

Protective effects of Celsior in lung transplantation.

Background: Celsior is a new preservation solution for heart transplants that recently has been shown also to improve protection of pulmonary grafts. As these data were obtained in isolated lung preparations, we sought to perform further tests with an in vivo model of allogeneic lung transplantation.

Methods: The left lungs of 41 rats were either transplanted immediately after harvest (controls) or flushed with and cold stored in Celsior or the blood-based Wallwork solution for 5 or 12 hours.

Hepatodiaphragmatic interposition of the colon--an unusual case of combined anterior and posterior types treated with an original operative technique: report of a case.

Hepatodiaphragmatic interposition of the colon is rare. The posterior type is rarer than the anterior type. We observed a case of combined anterior and posterior types and used an original operative technique with a Prolene mesh to exclude the dead space and prevent recurrence.

Beta-adrenergic and muscarinic receptor mRNA accumulation in the sinoatrial node area of adult and senescent rat hearts.

The sinoatrial (SA) node is the cardiac pacemaker and changes in its adrenergic-muscarinic phenotype have been postulated as a determinant of age-associated modifications in heart rate variability. To address this question, right atria were microdissected, the SA node area was identified by acetylcholinesterase staining, and, using a RT-PCR method, the accumulation of mRNA molecules encoding beta1- and beta2-adrenergic (beta1- and beta2-AR) and muscarinic (M2-R) receptor was quantified to define the proportion between beta-AR and M2-R mRNAs within the sinoatrial area of adult (3 months) and senescent (24 months) individual rat hearts. In adult hearts, the highest M2-R/beta-AR mRNA ratio was observed within the sinoatrial area compared with adjacent atrial myocardium, while in the senescent hearts, no difference was observed between sinoatrial and adjacent areas.

[Feasibility and short-term results of the "plug" technique in inguinal hernia. A prospective evaluation].

The aim of this prospective study was to assess the feasibility and postoperative outcome of the "plug" technique in inguinal hernia. One hundred and forty-six consecutive patients were operated for 151 hernias. A plug was applied in 131 cases (86.

Evidence for an involvement of the neutrophil integrin lymphocyte function-associated antigen-1 in early failure of heart transplants.

Background: The adhesion of neutrophils to the coronary vascular wall contributes to reperfusion injury of cardiac allografts. This phenomenon involves interactions between neutrophil beta 2-integrins (CD11a/CD18 [lymphocyte function-associated antigen-1, or LFA-1], CD11b/CD18 [membrane attack complex-1, or MAC-1], and CD11c/CD18 [p150,95]) and their endothelial ligands. Whereas the roles of the common beta-chain (CD18) and of the alpha-subunit of MAC-1 (CD11b) have been studied extensively, the role of the alpha-subunit of LFA-1 (CD11a) remains less well defined.