The combined effect of rosuvastatin and ischemic pre- or post-conditioning on myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury in rat heart.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the combined effect of rosuvastatin and ischemic preconditioning or postconditioning on ischemia-reperfusion injury in in vivo rat heart. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ninenty-six male adult Wistar rats were randomly assigned to eight groups: Sham group, ischemia-reperfusion, rosuvastatin preconditioning, rosuvastatin postconditioning, ischemic preconditioning, ischemic postconditioning, ischemic + pharmacologic preconditioning and ischemic + pharmacologic postconditioning groups. Blood samples were taken for creatine kinase evaluation at selected time points. Six rats in each group were separated for either infarct size assessment or immunohistochemical staining with Bcl-2 antibody. RESULTS: The staining with Bcl-2 was significantly lower in groups Sham, ischemic + pharmacologic preconditioning and ischemic + pharmacologic postconditioning groups which is well correlated with the decrease in infarct size for the same groups. The creatine kinase enzyme levels were also reduced to their lowest levels in ischemic + pharmacologic preconditioning and ischemic + pharmacologic postconditioning groups. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that enriching the composition of reperfusate with rosuvastatin along with ischemic preconditioning or postconditioning procedures at the opposite sides of ischemia may interact synergistically for protecting ischemic myocardium from reperfusion injury. The combined application of rosuvastatin with ischemic preconditioning or ischemic postconditioning may provide a new therapeutic option in clinical interventions when compared to single treatment with ischemic and rosuvastatin preconditioning or postconditioning.