Myocardial ischaemia: an isolated, globally perfused rat heart model for metabolic and pharmacological studies.

Abstract

A model of myocardial ischaemia is described and has been characterized in terms of functional, ultrastructural, electrophysiological and metabolic changes. The model fulfills a number of criteria considered to be of importance in any model of myocardial ischaemia namely (1) the myocardium is ischaemic as opposed to hypoxic, (2) the coronary flow is reduced but not totally abolished, (3) that flow reaching the ischaemic myocardium is fully oxygenated and contains a mixture of substrates. It is proposed that this model is of value for the investigation and assessment of pharmacological interventions during myocardial infarction.