ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to test whether oxygen carriers could decrease tissue injury in a rat model of acute myocardial infarct. The study included 3 groups: SD rats in group II and group III were subjected to permanent occlusion of their left anterior descending coronary arteries; SD rats in group I were subjected to sham-operation. The success of modeling was assartained by ECG. Then the rats were given drug via caudal veins for 2 days. A quantitative evaluation was made with an automatic device for interpretation of cardiac troponin T (cTnT); heart staining was made for the calculation of myocardial infarction size (MIS); and myocardial tissue was taken and subjected to routine pathological hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining for showing myocardial cell injury. cTnT in the sham-operation group was significantly lower by comparison with that in the model group (P < 0.01), and it was slightly lower in the oxygen carriers group than that in the model group, but there was no statistically significant difference (P = 0.18); MIS was significantly smaller in the sham-operation group than that in the model group (P < 0.01), and it was greater in the model rats than that in the oxygen carriers rats (P < 0.05). HE staining of myocardicum in the oxygen carriers group was significantly better than that in the model group (P < 0.01). The evidence suggested that oxygen carriers increased oxygen supply to ischemic myocardium, reduced the myocardial injury, and thus might offer a novel treatment of myocardial infarction.