Epicardial versus endocardial "in mirror" changes in prostaglandin synthesis after short periods of ischemia and reperfusion.

Cardiac ischemia and reperfusion are associated with increased prostaglandin levels in the coronary venous effluent. This study implemented an in vivo-in vitro technique to investigate regional alterations in heart tissue PGE2 and PGF2 alpha de novo production. Canine endocardial and epicardial explants were incubated following 5 min regional ischemia, or 5 min ischemia with 10 min reperfusion, induced in vivo in two groups of animals (n = 10 and 6, respectively). Ischemia produced a significant upsurge in endocardial but not in epicardial prostaglandin synthesis as compared with the non-ischemic zone: 7.6 +/- 0.7 versus 4.5 +/- 0.5 pg/mg tissue per h in PGE2 (P < 0.001) and 8.8 +/- 1.2 versus 6.8 +/- 1.2 pg/mg per h PGF2 alpha (P < 0.01). Following reperfusion, PGE2 was higher in the apparently normal than in the affected endocardium (5.8 +/- 0.6 versus 4.4 +/- 0.5 pg/mg per h, P < 0.05). Opposite changes occurred in the reperfused epicardium: 8.2 + 0.9 versus 4.9 +/- 0.7 pg/mg per h PGE2 (P < 0.01) and 11.1 +/- 0.9 versus 6.0 +/- 0.6 pg/mg per h PGF2 alpha (P < 0.001), for the reperfused as compared to the "normal" region, respectively. Our findings imply that the left ventricular wall is not homogeneous in its eicosanoid response to ischemia and reperfusion. "In mirror" changes were found between endocardium end epicardium and between the injured and the apparently normal regions.