Cholinergic agonists may produce preservation of myocardial ischaemia/reperfusion injury.

Abstract

The best treatment for myocardial infarction is to restore blood flow in the ischaemic region, though it will bring new myocardial damage known as myocardial ischaemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. Both the ischaemia preconditioning and the ischaemia postcondioning have been shown to reduce the myocardial I/R injury, but their deficits restrict wide clinical availability. It has been demonstrated that inflammation plays a critical role in the I/R injury process. Also plasma levels of cytokines and inflammation response can be regulated by specifically augmenting cholinergic signaling via the efferent vagus nerve and alpha7 subunit-containing nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (alpha7nAChR). Because cholinergic modalities, acting through vagus nerve- and/or alpha7nAChR-mediated mechanism, have been confirmed to suppress excessive inflammation during the I/R injury in kidney, liver, lung and intestine, therefore, we hypothesize that cholinergic agonists may also provide a protection for the myocardial I/R injury.

• Authors: J Xiong, F S Xue, Y C Xu, Q Y Yang, X Liao, W L Wang
• Journal: Medical hypotheses (Med Hypotheses) Vol. 73 Issue 3 Pg. 312-4 (Sep 2009) ISSN: 1532-2777 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 19401263 (Publication Type: Journal Article)

Chemical References

• Cholinergic Agonists
• Cytokines
• Receptors, Cholinergic

Topics

• Animals
• Cholinergic Agonists (administration & dosage)
• Cytokines (immunology)
• Humans
• Models, Cardiovascular
• Models, Immunological
• Myocardium (immunology)
• Receptors, Cholinergic (immunology)
• Reperfusion Injury (immunology, prevention & control)