The effect of nitroglycerin on the apoptosis of myocardial cells during the continuous ischemia and ischemia-reperfusion injury in the model dog

Objective To study the effect of nitroglycerin on the apoptosis of myocardial cells during the continuous ischemia and the ischemia-reperfusion injury. Methods Dogs were randomly divided into 5 groups. Acute myocardial infarction animal models were formed by ligating the anterior descending branches of the left coronary artery with slipknot to block the blood flow,followed by reperfusing the myocardium. The apoptotic cell was labeled by TUNEL. Results In situ apoptotic cell labeling and semiquantitative analysis showed that compared with sham operation group, the degree of the apoptosis of the myocardial cell was increased significantly in the continuous ischemia group and ischemia-reperfusion group. Compared with continuous ischemia group and ischemia-reperfusion injury group, the degree of the apoptosis of the myocardial cells was reduced significantly in the nitroglyeerin-administrated group. Conclusions Continuous ischemia and ischemia-reperfusion injury could result in the apoptosis of myocardial cells. Pretreatment with nitroglyeerin could lessen the degree of apoptosis of the myocardial cells significantly.