Figure 2.

Design of experimental protocols. (A) RIC procedures. Anesthetized rats were subjected to either 1) a sham procedure, or 2) remote ischemia (3×5 minutes hindlimb IR using a Langendorff system). During the procedures, effluents were collected. (B) The heart from another rat was excised and perfused on a Langendorff system before being subjected to the IR protocol (30-minute regional ischemia and 60-minute reperfusion): 1) control group, 2) IPC group: prior to the IR protocol, IPC (3×1 minute LAD IR) was applied, 3) sham effluent group: effluent after sham procedure was perfused for 10 minutes before the IR protocol, and 4) RIC effluent group: effluent after RIC procedure was perfused for 10 minutes before the IR protocol. Following each Langendorff experiment, infarct size was determined using TTC staining.

IPC = ischemic preconditioning; IR = ischemia/reperfusion; LAD = left anterior descending coronary artery; RIC = remote ischemic conditioning; TTC = triphenyl-tetrazolium-chloride.