Mitochondrial ATP-sensitive potassium channels have been proposed to be myoprotective. The relevance and specificity of this mechanism in cardiac surgery was unknown. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the mitochondrial potassium ATP-sensitive channel opener diazoxide on regional and global myocardial protection using a model of acute myocardial infarction.
Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Institutes of Medicine, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Room 144, Boston, MA 02115, USA.