NITECAPONE IS OF BENEFIT TO FUNCTIONAL PERFORMANCE IN EXPERIMENTAL HEART-TRANSPLANTATION

In heart transplantation, global ischemia of a graft is followed by re perfusion injury. The formation of oxygen free radicals induces arrhyt hmias and impairs functional recovery of the graft. This study was exe cuted to evaluate the effect of the new antioxidant, nitecapone, on is chemia-reperfusion injury in heart transplantation in rats. Donor hear ts were perfused and stored at +4 degrees C for 2 h in either Ringer's solution in the control group (C-group, n = 26) or Ringer's solution with nitecapone (NC) added (NC-group, n = 18). The donor aorta was ana stomosed to the recipient's abdominal aorta and the pulmonary artery t o the recipient's inferior vena cava. The grafts were classified into three categories based on the functional recovery. The rats in both gr oups were killed at 10, 30, or 60 min after release of the aortic clam p. Tissue samples for chemiluminescence were obtained from the left ve ntricle, the right ventricle, and the septum of the heart. All grafts in the NC-group (18/18) began beating after release of the aortic clam p, whereas only 50% (13/26) of the grafts in the C-group recovered (P < 0.0004). Chemiluminescence analysis showed lipid peroxidation values to be higher in the C-group than the NC-group up to 1 h after reperfu sion. Also, the right ventricle samples showed lower chemiluminescence values in the NC-group than in the C-group. In conclusion, our result s do not support the theory that different regions of the heart have d ifferent vulnerability to ischemia-reperfusion injuries. Nitecapone ha s a beneficial effect on the preservation of the grafts in terms of fu nctional recovery.