Hydrogen sulfide-mediated myocardial pre- and post-conditioning

Abstract

Coronary artery disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the Western world. Acute myocardial infarction, resulting from coronary artery atherosclerosis, is a serious and often fatal consequence of coronary artery disease, resulting in cell death in the myocardium. Pre- and post-conditioning of the myocardium are two treatment strategies that reduce the amount of cell death significantly. Hydrogen sulfide has recently been identified as a potent cardioprotective signaling molecule, which is a highly effective pre- and post-conditioning agent. The cardioprotective signaling pathways involved in hydrogen sulfide-based pre- and post-conditioning will be explored in this article.

Keywords::

• acute myocardial infarction
• apoptosis
• ischemia/reperfusion injury
• myocardial protection
• oxidative stress

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was supported by NIH grants 5R01 HL092141–02 and NIH 1R01 HL093579–01A1 to David J Lefer and the Carlye Fraser Heart Center (CFHC) of Emory University Hospital Midtown. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.