Spontaneous ischemic events in atherosclerotic mice precondition their hearts

Interaction of Cardiovascular Risk Factors with Myocardial Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury, Preconditioning, and Postconditioning

“…In one of these clinical studies, the loss of the anti-ischemic effect of early preconditioning was correlated with increased plasma cholesterol and LDL levels (Kyriakides et al, 2002). In contrast to the aforementioned studies, in rabbits fed a cholesterol-enriched diet for 8 weeks (Kremastinos et al, 2000), 6 weeks (Iliodromitis et al, 2006b), or 4 weeks (Jung et al, 2000) and in severely atherosclerotic ApoE/LDLr Ϫ/Ϫ double knockout mice fed an atherogenic diet for 6 to 8 months ) and 7 to 9 months (Tokuno et al, 2002) the infarct sizelimiting effect of classic preconditioning was not attenuated. The reasons for these conflicting results are unknown, but it seems that in some hyperlipidemic models the presence of severe atherosclerosis and the resultant alterations in liver function may further affect the complex pathophysiology of hyperlipidemia and mechanisms of adaptive cardioprotection.…”