Attenuation of Ischaimia Reperfusion Induced Myocardial Cell Injury in Rat Heart by Calpastatin

Myocardial ischaemia reperfusion is associated with activation of intracellular death proteases known as calpains. Isolated rat heart was subjected to 30 min ischaemia followed by reperfusion for 120min. The effect of calpain inhibitor calpastatin in induced myocardial injury assessed in terms of infract size measured macroscopically, release of LDH and CK have been investigated. Agarose gel electrophoresis was used to assess the DNA fragmentation. TUNEL staining was done to investigate the apoptotic index. Calpastatin has attenuated ischaemia reperfusion induced increase in LDH, CK, myocardial infarct size, DNA smearing and apoptotic index. It may be concluded that inhibition of intracellular death proteases prevented ischaemia reperfusion induced myocardial cell injury in terms of apoptosis and necrosis.