Does xanthine oxidase cause damage during myocardial ischemia?

Xanthine oxidase is the pathological form of xanthine oxidoreductase, which generates free oxygen radicals, when it converts (hypo)xanthine to urate. We studied 1. developmental changes in rat heart, 2. urate production in catheterized patients, and 3. species differences of cardiac xanthine oxidase. First, we measured the activity of the enzyme at various ages. In rat-heart homogenate, xanthine oxidoreductase increased from 0.5 mU/g (newborn) to 25 mU/g (15 weeks, P less than 0.001). In the second part of the study, we demonstrated that patients undergoing coronary angioplasty showed some cardiac urate production. In the last part of our investigations we showed that in explanted human hearts perfused with hypoxanthine, the enzymatic activity was low, contrasting findings in some other species. The apparent xanthine oxidoreductase activity (mU/g) was: 33 (mouse), 28 (rat), 14 (guinea pig), 0.59 (rabbit), less than 0.1 (pig), 0.31 (man) and 3.7 (cow). We conclude that in several species, cardiac damage due to xanthine oxidase cannot be excluded; however in man it is unlikely to occur.