Pacing-induced Ventricular Fibrillation Leading to Oxygen Free Radical Formation in Aerobically Perfused Rat Hearts

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine whether electrically-induced ventricular fibrillation can elicit oxygen free radical formation, even in the absence of ischemia and reperfusion. Rat hearts ( n = 8 in each group) were perfused aerobically at 37°C and ventricular fibrillation was induced by pacing (20 Hz, 1200 beats/min) for 10 min, during which time no changes in coronary flow rates were observed. In this study, electron spin resonance (ESR) studies using the spin trap 5, 5-dimethyl-1-pyrroline-N-oxide (DMPO) demonstrated the formation of oxygen free radicals consisting of 1:2:2:1 quartet with peak concentration at the 3rd min of fibrillation in non-ischemic electrically fibrillating hearts. Since there were no significant changes in coronary flow rates during ventricular fibrillation (22.3 ± 1.3 ml/min in control vs 22.3 ± 0.9 ml/min in pacing-induced fibrillating group), the formation of oxygen free radicals could not be attributed to a pacing-induced ischemic event. In additional studies, hearts were paced by 10 Hz (600 beats/min), to demonstrate whether ventricular tachycardia could elicit free radical formation. In these experiments the genesis of oxygen free radicals was not observable after 1 min, 5 min, and 10 min of tachycardia, but a small amount of OH radicals was detected at the 3rd min of ventricular tachycardia. When DMPO was infused into the heart giving a final perfusate concentration of 2.5 mmoles/litre during the pacing-induced fibrillation period, myocardial function (aortic flow, cardiac outputs, left ventricular developed pressure, first derivative of left ventricular developed pressure,and end-diastolic pressure) was significantly improved after the postfibrillating period. In conclusion, our studies clearly show that electrically-induced ventricular fibrillation is capable of eliciting free radical formation even in the absence of ischemia and reperfusion, and the cardioprotective effect of the spin trap is directly originated from its free radical trapping property and not from the other pharmacological activities of DMPO.