Effects of 11, 12-EET and ischemic preconditioning on phosphorylated ERK and p38 MAPK during ischemia and reperfusion in rat myocardium

AIM: In order to study the relationship between the ERK and p38 MAPK activation and the protection of 11, 12-epoxyeicosatrienoic acid (11, 12-EET) and ischemia preconditioning (IP), the effects of 11, 12-EET and ischemic preconditioning on phosphorylated ERK and p38 MAPK during ischemia and reperfusion in rat myocardium were examined. METHODS: The rat heart was subjected to ischemia for 5 min by ligating the left anterior descending coronary artery followed by reperfusion for 5 min (two times) to undergo ischemia preconditioning. The rats were divided into 5 groups: (1) control; (2) sham group; (3) ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) group, in which the rat heart suffered from 60 min ischemia followed by 30 min reperfusion; (4) IP plus I/R group; (5) EET plus I/R group, in which 6.28×10^-8 mol/L 11, 12-EET was injected intravenously 20 min before I/R. The heart function was examined, and phosphorylated ERK and p38 MAPK were detected by Western blot. RESULTS: At 30 min reperfusion, +dp/dt_max, -dp/dt_max and LVDP decreased significantly in I/R group compared with sham group, IP plus I/R group and EET plus I/R group; Phosphorylated ERK1/2 level was higher in I/R group than sham group, but was lower in I/R group than IP plus I/R group and EET plus I/R group; Phosphorylated p38 MAPK level was lower in control, sham, IP plus I/R and EET plus I/R group than I/R group. CONCLUSION: 11,12-EET protects rat heart against ischemia/reperfusion injury, the mechanism may be related to activation of ERK1/2 and inhibition of p38 MAPK.