Review Article Protection of Coronary Endothelial Function during Cardiac Surgery: Potential of Targeting Endothelial Ion Channels in Cardioprotection

Copyright © 2014 Qin Yang et al.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative CommonsAttribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Vascular endothelium plays a critical role in the control of blood flow by producing vasoactive factors to regulate vascular tone. Ion channels, in particular, K+ channels and Ca2+-permeable channels in endothelial cells, are essential to the production and function of endothelium-derived vasoactive factors. Impairment of coronary endothelial function occurs in open heart surgery that may result in reduction of coronary blood flow and thus in an inadequate myocardial perfusion. Hyperkalemic exposure and concurrent ischemia-reperfusion during cardioplegic intervention compromise NO and EDHF-mediated function and the impairment involves alterations of K+ channels, that is, KATP and KCa, and Ca 2+-permeable TRP channels in endothelial cells. Pharmacological modulation of these channels during ischemia-reperfusion and hyperkalemic exposure show promising results on the preservation of NO and EDHF-mediated endothelial function, which suggests the potential of targeting endothelial K+ an