Low Oxygen-Exposed Red Blood Cells Shield Against Heart Attacks

Exposing red blood cells to oxygen deficiency appears to provide protection against myocardial infarction (heart attack), revealed study conducted at Karolinska Institutet in collaboration with Karolinska University Hospital (1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Hypoxic erythrocytes mediate cardioprotection through activation of soluble guanylate cyclase and release of cyclic GMP

Go to source). The effect is enhanced by a diet containing nitrate-rich vegetables, such as arugula and other green leafy vegetables.

Nitrate-Rich Vegetables' Positive Impact on Blood Pressure

“This effect was also shown in a clinical study in patients with high blood pressure who were randomly assigned to eat nitrate-rich vegetables or a diet low in nitrates,” says John Pernow, Professor of Cardiology at the Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet in Solna and senior physician at Karolinska University Hospital, and the study’s corresponding author together with Jon Lundberg, professor at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet.

Part of the study was conducted through experiments with red blood cells from mice that were added to a myocardial infarction model with hearts from mice. Before the experiment, the red blood cells were exposed to low oxygen pressure, while nitrate was added to the drinking water.

In a clinical study, red blood cells were collected from patients with high blood pressure who were randomly assigned a nitrate-rich diet with green leafy vegetables or a diet with nitrate-poor vegetables. These red blood cells were given to the corresponding myocardial infarction model with hearts from rats.

“This may be of great importance for patients at risk of myocardial infarction,” says the study’s first author Jiangning Yang, a researcher at the Department of Medicine, Solna, Karolinska Institutet.

The next step in the research is to develop additional drugs that can activate the protective signalling mechanism in red blood cells to provide protection to the body’s tissues and cells in the event of oxygen deficiency.

“In addition, we need to map how the blood cells transmit their protective signal to the heart muscle cells,” says John Pernow.

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The study is a collaboration between researchers from, among others, Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital, Tohoku University, Japan, Heinrich-Heine-University, Germany, and Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany.

The research was funded by the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation, the Swedish Research Council and Region Stockholm’s ALF project funds. Jon Lundberg and Eddie Weitzberg hold patents related to therapies based on inorganic nitrate. Other researchers report no conflicts of interest.

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Reference:

1. Hypoxic erythrocytes mediate cardioprotection through activation of soluble guanylate cyclase and release of cyclic GMP - (https://www.jci.org/articles/view/167693)

Source-Eurekalert