The neural and humoral pathways in remote limb ischemic preconditioning

Abstract

Remote ischaemic preconditioning (RIPC) is a therapeutic intervention that has been demonstrated to reduce myocardial injury in the clinical setting. However, the underlying cardioprotective mechanisms remain unclear. We hypothesised that RIPC utilises both humoral and neural pathways to convey the cardioprotective signal from the preconditioned remote organ to the heart. C57BL/6 mice were anaesthetised and subjected to in vivo 30 min coronary artery ischaemia followed by 120 min of myocardial reperfusion, at the end of which myocardial infarct size was measured and expressed as a percentage of the risk zone. RIPC was induced by 3 cycles of 5 min left femoral artery occlusion interspersed wi..