S. Premaratne et al., EFFECTS OF HYALURONIDASE ON REDUCING MYOCARDIAL INFARCT SIZE IN A BABOON MODEL OF ISCHEMIA-REPERFUSION INJURY, The Journal of surgical research, 58(2), 1995, pp. 205-210
Hyaluronidase has been reported to be beneficial in reducing injury to
the ischemic myocardium in several experimental studies. This effect
may involve an enhancement in either the cardiac blood supply or lymph
atic flow or a combination there of. In this experiment, a baboon open
chest model of myocardial ischemia and reperfusion was used to determ
ine if treatment with hyaluronidase would result in a reduction in inf
arct size. Baboons underwent occlusion of the left anterior descending
coronary artery for 2 hr. Fifteen minutes after occlusion, a treated
group (n = 6) received bovine testicular hyaluronidase (500 national f
ormulary units/kg) iv over a 1.0-min period. The ischemic period was f
ollowed by 22 hr of reperfusion. A control group (n = 8) underwent the
same protocol minus the hyaluronidase infusion. At the end of the rep
erfusion period, the hearts were excised and the perfusion bed at risk
for infarction was determined by the infusion of a microvascular dye.
The hearts were then sectioned and stained for the histological deter
mination of infarct size. The volume of the perfusion bed infarcted wa
s 66 +/- 7% in the control group compared with 42 +/- 10% in the treat
ed group (P > 0.05). In this study using a primate model that has a mi
nimal collateral blood supply, hyaluronidase did not significantly red
uce the ultimate infarct size. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.