Increased production or arachidonate metabolites in an occlusion-reperfusion model of canine myocardial infarction

To define the role of arachidonate metabolites in evolving ischaemic myocardial damage 10 anaesthetised open chest dogs underwent 90 min occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery followed by 5 h reperfusion. Tissue extracts from ischaemic myocardium incubated in vitro were subjected to high pressure liquid chromatography for analysis of lipoxygenase products such as mono hydroxyeicosatetraenoic (HETE) acids and to radioimmunoassay for determining a cyclooxygenase product, thromboxane B2. In ischaemic myocardium the production of 12-HETE (120(35) ng.g-1, mean (SEM)) and thromboxane B2 (18.3(2.4) ng.g-1) was significantly higher than that in normal myocardium (13(2) ng.g-1, p less than 0.01, and 4.2(0.5) ng.g-1, p less than 0.001, respectively). 12-HETE production was linearly correlated with thromboxane B2 production in ischaemic myocardium (r = 0.718, p less than 0.02). The increased production of 12-HETE and thromboxane B2 was in proportion to infarct size as measured by a percentage risk area infarcted (r = 0.732, p less than 0.02, and r = 0.942, p less than 0.001, respectively). Similarly, the increase in production of these eicosanoids was related to the degree of leucocyte infiltration in ischaemic myocardium. These results indicate that altered arachidonate metabolism is strongly associated with the progression of ischaemic myocardial damage, suggesting important roles for these eicosanoids, which may be produced by blood corpuscles during the evolution of acute myocardial infarction.