Figure 1.

The experimental protocol used to investigate the effects of non-invasive remote ischemic conditioning (RIC) on the acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in three groups of rats. In the acute myocardial infarction (AMI group) (n=24), the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery was ligated under spontaneous breathing conditions in the rat. The remote ischemic conditioning (RIC) group (n=24) included rats with AMI and four cycles of 5 minutes of ischemia were followed by 5 minutes of reperfusion each day on days 1, 7, and 14. In the sham group (n=24), there was no intervention.