Abstract

We determined whether an organic superoxide dismutase mimetic could reduce myocardial injury resulting from a 90-min occlusion of the left circumflex coronary artery, followed by 18 hr of reperfusion in an anesthetized canine. The superoxide dismutase-mimetic studied (SC-52608) was a synthetic Mn-based macrocyclic compound. SC-52608 or the inactive analog SC-54385 was administered as four doses of 4 mg/kg i.v. Drug, inactive analog or vehicle was administered 30 and 15 min before ischemia and 15 min and immediately before reperfusion. To ensure parity of left circumflex coronary artery occlusion-induced ischemia, only animals with ischemic zone blood flow of less than 0.15 ml/min/g were included in the final analysis. Ischemic zone blood flow was 0.069 +/- 0.016 ml/min/g in control animals (n = 10), 0.072 +/- 0.010 ml/min/g in SC-52608-treated animals (n = 11) and 0.053 +/- 0.011 ml/min/g in SC-54385-treated (n = 9) animals. A transient hypotensive effect was observed upon SC-52608 administration. Hemodynamic parameters were otherwise unaffected by SC-52608 or SC-54385. The areas at risk of infarct were 39.6 +/- 1.9%, 38.7 +/- 1.1% and 39.4 +/- 1.1% in control, SC-52608-treated and SC-54385-treated animals, respectively. Myocardial infarct sizes (% of area at risk of infarct) were 44.2 +/- 5.6%, 25.7 +/- 4.3% and 35.1 +/- 4.9% in control, SC-52608-treated and SC-54385-treated animals, respectively (P < .05 control vs. SC-52608-treated). Therefore, the synthetic superoxide dismutase mimetic protected the regionally ischemic and reperfused myocardium from injury, implicating oxygen-derived radicals in the tissue-injury process.