The effects of pretreatment with the nucleoside transport inhibitor lidoflazine on repeated ischemia-reperfusion injury induced by normothermic intermittent aortic crossclamping were studied in canine hearts. Eighteen mongrel dogs were allocated to three groups: placebo (n = 6), lidoflazine (1 mg/kg) (n = 6), and lidoflazine (1 mg/kg) plus the adenosine receptor blocker aminophylline (7 mg/kg) (n = 6). Pretreatment was performed intravenously during 15 minutes before extracorporeal circulation. All hearts were subjected to four intervals of 15 minutes of global ischemia each followed by 10 minutes of reperfusion. After weaning from extracorporeal circulation, functional recovery was followed for 1 hour. In the lidoflazine group, myocardial adenosine content (0.25 +/- 0.06 mumol/gm dry weight) was 3.5 times higher than that in the control group (0.07 +/- 0.03 mumol/gm dry weight; p < 0.05) at the end of the last aortic crossclamping. The release of adenosine from the myocardium during each reperfusion period was significantly higher than that in the control group (p < 0.05). Myocardial extraction of lactate was normalized at every reperfusion interval in the lidoflazine group but not in the control group (p < 0.05). In the lidoflazine group functional recovery was significantly better than that in the control group. Positive rate of rise of pressure, negative rate of rise of pressure, and cardiac output recovered to, respectively, 150 % +/- 19 %, 82 % +/- 8 %, and 131 % +/- 15 % in the lidoflazine group versus, respectively, 37 % +/- 9 %, 23 % +/- 7 %, and 29 % +/- 8 % in the control group (p < 0.001) at 1 hour after extracorporeal circulation. When the adenosine receptor blocker aminophylline was administered in association with lidoflazine, protection dropped significantly: positive and negative rate of rise of pressure and cardiac output were, respectively, 58 % +/- 8 %, 46 % +/- 9 %, and 67 % +/- 16 % at 1 hour after extracorporeal circulation (p < 0.05 versus lidoflazine alone). These results suggest that the cardioprotective effects of lidoflazine are at least in part mediated by adenosine receptor stimulation via nucleoside transport inhibition-induced accumulation of endogenous adenosine in the myocardium.
