Abstract 374: Targeted Deletion of A 2B Adenosine Receptors Attenuates the Protective Effects of Myocardial Postconditioning

Abstract

Endogenous adenosine is an important ligand trigger for the cardioprotective effects of postconditioning (PostCon). To assess the hypothesis that A 2B adenosine receptor (A 2B AR) activation contributes to PostCon-induced protection, global ischemia-reperfusion was performed with and without PostCon or the selective A 2B agonist, BAY 60 – 6583 (BAY), in isolated wild-type (WT) and A 2B AR knockout (A 2B KO) mouse hearts. In WT hearts, PostCon improved post-ischemic recovery of left ventricular developed pressure (LVDP) to 63.3±1.6 % of pre-ischemic baseline vs. 49.9±1.6 % in non-PostCon controls (CTL), lowered end diastolic pressure (EDP) to 15.8±1.5 mmHg vs. 27.9±1.6 mmHg in CTL, and reduced coronary efflux of cardiac troponin I (cTnI) to 2507±359 ng/g heart weight vs. 4693±343 ng/g in CTL (n=12 both groups, p <0.05 each comparison). Treatment with BAY in the first two min of reperfusion mimicked beneficial effects of PostCon in WT hearts (LVDP: 64.7±2.0 % baseline, EDP: 16.2±2.0 mmHg, cTnI: 3311±366; n=13, not significant compared to respective PostCon values). Real-time PCR confirmed absence of A 2B AR in A 2B KO hearts and demonstrated no changes in expression of other adenosine receptor subtypes compared with WT hearts. In A 2B KO hearts, neither PostCon nor BAY improved recovery of LVDP (50.8±1.6 % baseline for CTL vs. 54.5±1.7 % with PostCon vs. 53.0±1.4 with BAY; n=6 each group), and neither affected EDP or release of cTnI. During reperfusion, both PostCon and BAY increased survival kinase signaling through Akt and ERK1/2 phosphorylation in WT but not A 2B KO hearts. In non-ischemic WT hearts, Akt and ERK1/2 phosphorylation was increased by both BAY treatment and application of the PostCon stimulus. These data demonstrate that the protective effects of PostCon are attenuated by targeted deletion of A 2B AR and are mimicked by selective A 2B AR activation, suggesting A 2B AR activation is an important trigger leading to PostCon-induced myocardial protection.