Hydrogen sulfide post-conditioning preserves interfibrillar mitochondria of rat heart during ischemia reperfusion injury

Cardiac mitochondrial dysfunction is considered to be the main manifestation in the pathology of ischemia reperfusion injury, and by restoring its functional activity, hydrogen sulfide (H2S), a novel endogenous gaseotransmitter renders cardioprotection. Given that interfibrillar (IFM) and subsarcolemmal (SSM) mitochondria are the two main types in the heart, the present study investigates the specific H2S-mediated action on IFM and SSM during ischemic reperfusion in the Langendorff rat heart model. Rats were randomly divided into five groups, namely normal, ischemic control, reperfusion control (I/R), ischemic post-conditioning (POC), and H2S post-conditioning (POC_H2S). In reperfusion control, cardiac contractility decreased, and lactate dehydrogenase, creatine kinase, and infracted size increased compared to both normal and ischemic group. In hearts post-conditioned with H2S and the classical method improved cardiac mechanical function and decreased cardiac markers in the perfusate and infarct size significantly. Both POC and POC_H2S exerts its cardioprotective effect of preserving the IFM, as evident by significant improvement in electron transport chain enzyme activities and mitochondrial respiration. The in vitro action of H2S on IFM and SSM from normal and I/R rat heart supports H2S and mediates cardioprotection via IFM preservation. Our study indicates that IFM play an important role in POC_H2S mediated cardioprotection from reperfusion injury.