New insights into cardioprotection by ischemic preconditioning and other forms of stress.

Ischemic preconditioning has not only received wide attention in heart research, but has also been a topic of extensive studies involving other organs. In several of these studies, it has been shown that in spite of differences in the endpoints used to assess protection, the same mediators as in myocardial ischemic preconditioning may be involved. However, several of the putative mediators do not require ischemia to become activated. This has guided us and others to investigate whether the myocardium can also be protected by brief ischemia in other organs and whether other non-pharmacological forms of stress, which do not produce ischemia but are capable of activating these potential mediators, are also cardioprotective.