Induction and Assessment of Ischemia-reperfusion Injury in Langendorff-perfused Rat Hearts

Summary

The isolated rat heart is an enduring model for ischemia reperfusion injury. Here, we describe the process of harvesting the beating heart from a rat via in situ aortic cannulation, Langendorff perfusion of the heart, simulated ischemia-reperfusion injury, and infarct staining to confirm the extent of ischemic insult.

Abstract

The biochemical events surrounding ischemia reperfusion injury in the acute setting are of great importance to furthering novel treatment options for myocardial infarction and cardiac complications of thoracic surgery. The ability of certain drugs to precondition the myocardium against ischemia reperfusion injury has led to multiple clinical trials, with little success. The isolated heart model allows acute observation of the functional effects of ischemia reperfusion injury in real time, including the effects of various pharmacological interventions administered at any time-point before or within the ischemia-reperfusion injury window. Since brief periods of ischemia can precondition the heart against ischemic injury, in situ aortic cannulation is performed to allow for functional assessment of non-preconditioned myocardium. A saline filled balloon is placed into the left ventricle to allow for real-time measurement of pressure generation. Ischemic injury is simulated by the cessation of perfusion buffer flow, followed by reperfusion. The duration of both ischemia and reperfusion can be modulated to examine biochemical events at any given time-point. Although the Langendorff isolated heart model does not allow for the consideration of systemic events affecting ischemia and reperfusion, it is an excellent model for the examination of acute functional and biochemical events within the window of ischemia reperfusion injury as well as the effect of pharmacological intervention on cardiac pre- and postconditioning. The goal of this protocol is to demonstrate how to perform in situ aortic cannulation and heart excision followed by ischemia/reperfusion injury in the Langendorff model.

Introduction

Elucidation of the events underlying the cardiac response to both ischemia and reperfusion are essential in improving the treatment of myocardial infarction¹ and cardiac surgical procedures that require aortic cross-clamping². While in vivo models of ischemia reperfusion injury allow very useful endpoint analysis, they are not as effective for studying the functional effects of ischemia reperfusion injury acutely in real time. Additionally, in vivo ischemia reperfusion models generally produce significant variability in infarct size, and direct delivery of drug to the heart at the time of reperfusion is challenging. The utilizat....

Protocol

All procedures listed here have been approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at the Medical University of South Carolina. The experiments described here are acute, non-survival experiments. As such, there is no use of eye ointment and a sterile operating suite is not required. Euthanasia is achieved by exsanguination during harvesting of the heart.

1. Experimental Preparation

1. Set up either a constant pressure or constant flow Langendorff Perfusion Apparatus⁴.
2. Prepare 4 L of modified Krebs Henseleit Buffer (in mM: 112 NaCl, 5 KCl, 1.2 MgSO₄, 1 K₂HPO₄, 1.25 ....

Results

The left ventricular balloon apparatus allows for real-time monitoring of the pressure developed by the contracting left ventricle (Figure 1). As described previously⁷, this pressure trace can be used to calculate many of the parameters of ventricular function. These calculations can be made in the baseline phase as well as the reperfusion phase, averaged over multiple traces within each group, and compared in order to determine whether the pharmacological intervention resulted in cardiac prec.......

Discussion

The isolated perfused rat heart can be successfully used to study the effect of pharmacological intervention on cardiac preconditioning in ischemia reperfusion injury⁹. However, there are some essential steps to the procedure that must be standardized in order to ensure reproducible results. Maintaining a temperature of 37.4 °C within the system is critical, as even mild hypothermia and hyperthermia can cause cardiac preconditioning^10,11. The overall time that elapses from injection of anesthet.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Sodium Chloride	Sigma Aldrich	S3014
Potassium Chloride	Sigma Aldrich	P9541
Magnesium Sulfate	Sigma Aldrich	203726
Potassium Phosphate Dibasic	Sigma Aldrich	RES20765-A7
Calcium Chloride Dihydrate	Sigma Aldrich	C8106
Sodium Bicarbonate	Sigma Aldrich	S5761
D-Glucose	Sigma Aldrich	G8270
Octanoic Acid	Sigma Aldrich	C2875
2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride	Sigma Aldrich	T8877
Medical Pressure Transducer	MEMSCAP	SP844
Masterflex Peristaltic Pump	Cole Parmer	EW-07521-40
Masterflex Easy Load Pump Head	Cole Parmer	EW-07518-10
Heated circulating water bath	Lauda	M3
Tubing Flow Module	Transonic	TS410
Modular Research Console	Transonic	T402
Inline flow sensor	Transonic	ME2PXN
PowerLab Data Acquisition Device	AD Instruments	PL3508
LabChart data acquisition software	AD Instruments	MLU60/8