Pentostatin-augmented interstitial adenosine prevents postcardioplegia injury in damaged hearts.

This study tests the hypothesis that the adenosine deaminase inhibitor pentostatin (2-deoxycoformycin), when given before ischemia or during infusions of blood cardioplegia, augments interstitial adenosine levels and prevents postcardioplegia dysfunction in hearts with antecedent ischemia. Twenty-one anesthetized dogs were placed on cardiopulmonary bypass, and the hearts were made globally ischemic for 30 minutes. Dogs received blood cardioplegia with no pentostatin (BCP group, n = 6), pretreatment pentostatin (0.2 mg/kg) infused 5 minutes before global ischemia (PS-PTx group, n = 7), or pentostatin included only in the blood cardioplegia without pretreatment (PS-BCP group, n = 8). Microdialysate myocardial adenosine levels (an index of interstitial fluid levels) increased only modestly in the BCP group (from 0.55 +/- 0.13 microM to 2.64 +/- 0.50 microM) and the PS-BCP group (from 0.55 +/- 0.18 microM to 1.08 +/- 0.48 microM) during normothermic ischemia, but interstitial adenosine levels were not augmented further during cardioplegic arrest in either group. In contrast, the adenosine level in the PS-PTx group was significantly (p < 0.05) augmented during global ischemia (from 0.50 +/- 0.13 microM to 63.16 +/- 28.08 microM) and cardioplegia infusion (to 15.26 microM +/- 5.61 microM). Relative to baseline, postischemic left ventricular performance (end-systolic pressure-volume relation) was depressed in both the BCP (from 5.5 +/- 1.2 mm Hg/mL to 3.8 +/- 0.4 mm Hg/mL) and PS-BCP groups (from 7.1 +/- 0.9 mm Hg/mL to 3.8 +/- 0.7 mm Hg/mL). In contrast, PS-PTx restored postischemic performance (from 6.2 +/- 0.5 mm Hg/mL to 7.5 +/- 0.9 mm Hg/mL).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)