Significance of nitrogen monoxide in the implementation of the infarctlimiting effect of remote ischemic postconditioning in myocardial ischemia-reperfusion in young and old rats

Abstract

Modern medicine faces the problem of a steady growth of cardiovascular pathology. Given the high medical and social significance of the problem of treating patients with coronary heart disease and acute myocardial infarction, the search for new effective methods to prevent or mitigate ischemic myocardial damage and mechanisms for their implementation is an urgent task of modern experimental and clinical medicine. The aim of the study was to determine the significance of nitric monoxide in realizing the infarction-limiting effect of remote ischemic postconditioning (RIPostC) in myocardial ischemia-reperfusion in young and old rats. The study revealed that RIPostC has a heart attack-limiting effect in myocardial ischemia-reperfusion in both young and old rats; however, under the conditions of the systemic action of the NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester inhibitor at a dose of 25 mg/kg (intravenous administration 5 min before the start of reperfusion and 15 min before RIPostC), the effect remains, although not completely, in old rats but not in young rats. Apparently, the NO synthase activity and the blood level of nitric monoxide play a more significant role in the mechanisms of the cardioprotective effects of RIPostC in young rats than in old rats.