Glycine attenuates myocardial ischemia – reperfusion injury by inhibiting myocardial apoptosis in rats

Publication date: September 2012 Source:Journal of Biomedical Research, Volume 26, Issue 5 Author(s): Xiaozheng Zhong , Xiaoyu Li , Lingling Qian , Yiming Xu , Yan Lu , Jing Zhang , Nan Li , Xudong Zhu , Jingjing Ben , Qing Yang , Qi Chen Glycine is a well-documented cytoprotective agent. However, whether it has a protective effect against myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury in vivo is still unknown. By using an open-chest anesthetized rat model, we found that glycine reduced the infarct size by 21% in ischemia-reperfusion injury rats compared with that in the vehicle-treated MI/R rats. The left ventricular ejection fraction and fractional shortening were increased by 19.11% and 30.98%, respectively, in glycine-treated rats. The plasma creatine kinase levels in ischemia-reperfusion injury rats decreased following glycine treatment. Importantly, administration of glycine significantly inhibited apoptosis in post-ischemia-reperfusion myocardium, which was accompanied by suppression of phosphorylated p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase and c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase, as well as the Fas ligand. These results suggest that glycine attenuates myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury in vivo by inhibiting cardiomyocytes apoptosis.
Source: Journal of Biomedical Research - Category: Biochemistry Source Type: research