Ischemic Preconditioning

Description

Myocardial preconditioning is the exposure of myocardial tissue to brief, repeated periods of vascular occlusion in order to render the myocardium resistant to the deleterious effects of prolonged episodes of ischaemia or reperfusion. Ischemic preconditioning stands virtually alone in its unquestionable ability to limit infarct size in the controlled setting of the experimental laboratory. Over the past 25 years both in the experimental laboratory and in the clinical realm, brief episodes of ischemia influence the myocardium in both positive and negative ways and  this influence may last for days. The current challenges are to elucidate - using 'traditional' assays and pharmacologic tools coupled with contemporary technologies - the elaborate web of cellular mediators and signal transduction pathways that effect the reduction in infarct size achieved with preconditioning and, ultimately, translate this information to the intelligent design of novel and benign strategies to prophylactically render the human heart resistant to sustained ischemia.