High-cholesterol diet effects on ischemia/reperfusion injury of the heart

D´ANNUNZIO V; DONATO M; BUCHHOLZ B; PEREZ V; MIKSZTOWICZ V; BERG G; GELPI RJ

CANADIAN JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY AND PHARMACOLOGY

NATL RESEARCH COUNCIL CANADA-N R C RESEARCH PRESS

Año: 2012 vol. 90 p. 1185 - 1196

0008-4212

Abstract: Ischemic heart disease is the leading cause of morbi-mortality in developed countries. Both ischemia?reperfusioninjury and mechanisms of cardioprotection have been studied for more than 50 years. It is known that the physiopathologicalmechanism of myocardial ischemia involves several factors that are closely related to its development, of which hypercholesterolemiais one of the main ones. Therefore, the objective of this review was to elucidate the effects of a high-cholesteroldiet on normal ventricular function and ischemia?reperfusion injury associated phenomenon such as post-ischemic ventriculardysfunction (stunned myocardium). Although there exist many studies considering several aspects of this physiopathologicalentity, the majority were carried out on normal animals. Thus, experiments carried out on hypercholesterolemic modelsare controversial, in particular those evaluating different mechanisms of cardioprotection such as ischemic preconditioningand postconditioning, and cardioprotection granted by drugs such as statins, which apart from exerting a lipid-lowering effect,exert pleiotropic effects providing cardioprotection against ischemia?reperfusion injury. These controversial results concerningthe mechanisms of cardioprotection vary according to quality, composition, and time of administration of the highcholesteroldiet, as well as the species used in each experiment. Thus, to compare the results it is necessary to take all ofthese variables into account, since they can change the obtained results.