Pharmacological preconditioning with nicorandil and pioglitazone attenuates myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury in rats

The present investigation was designed to study the cardioprotective effects of nicorandil and pioglitazone preconditioning in myocardial ischemia/reperfusion-induced hemodynamic, biochemical and histological changes in rats. Oral doses of nicorandil (3 or 6 mg/kg) and pioglitazone (10 or 20 mg/kg) were administered once daily for 5 consecutive days. Rats were then subjected to myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (40 min/10 min). Heart rate and ventricular arrhythmias were recorded during ischemia/reperfusion progress. At the end of reperfusion, plasma creatine kinase-MB activity and total nitrate/nitrite were determined. In addition, lactate, adenine nucleotides, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, reduced glutathione and myeloperoxidase activity were estimated in the heart left ventricle. Finally, histological examination was performed to visualize the protective cellular effects of different pretreatments. Nicorandil (3 or 6 mg/kg) was effective in attenuating the ischemia/reperfusion-induced ventricular arrhythmias, creatine kinase-MB release, lactate accumulation and oxidative stress. Nicorandil (3 mg/kg) was more effective in improving the energy production and lowering the elevated myeloperoxidase activity. Both doses of pioglitazone (10 or 20 mg/kg) were equally effective in reducing lactate accumulation and completely counteracting the oxidative stress. Pioglitazone (10 mg/kg) was more effective in improving energy production and reducing ventricular arrhythmias, plasma creatine kinase-MB release and total nitrate/nitrite. It seems that selective mitochondrial KATP channel opening by lower doses of nicorandil and pioglitazone in the present study provided more cardioprotection against ventricular arrhythmias and biochemical changes induced by ischemia/reperfusion. Histological examination revealed also better improvement by the lower dose of nicorandil than that of pioglitazone.