Preoperative dietary restriction reduces intimal hyperplasia and protects from ischemia-reperfusion injury

In view of the high clinical complication rates in the setting of cardiovascular reconstructions (and their pathophysiologic links to ischemia-reperfusion and intimal hyperplasia), short-term dietary restriction stands as a particularly attractive, pleiotropic strategy for this population to enhance patient outcomes. Whereas employment of rodent models will be useful in refining our understanding of the nutritional basis of protection and underlying molecular mechanisms, inevitably multicenter randomized clinical trials will be required to determine efficacy of such approaches in humans.