Fig. 5.

In response to remote ischemic conditioning (RIC), platelets transfer a cardioprotective signal through an aspirin and thus Cox-sensitive mechanism. Aspirin pretreatment of healthy volunteers abrogated RIC’s transfer of cardioprotection through washed platelets but not that through plasma-dialysate, which supports a platelet-specific component of RIC’s humoral transfer of cardioprotection. Ticagrelor pretreatment obviously did not impact on protection by RIC, since the level of infarct size reduction achieved with platelets or plasma-dialysate from blood after RIC was not different in the absence or presence of ticagrelor. Washed platelets or plasma-dialysates from volunteers before and after RIC (without or with aspirin/ticagrelor pretreatment) were infused into an isolated perfused rat heart with 30-min global ischemia and 120-min reperfusion with infarct size as endpoint