Effect of cicletanine on reperfusion-induced arrhythmias and its relation to 6-keto-PGF1 alpha and thromboxane B2 release

Isolated hearts, excised from spontaneously hypertensive male rats treated orally with cicletanine, a new furopyridine anti-hypertensive drug, were subjected to 30 min of global ischemia followed by 10 min of reperfusion. The effect of cicletanine on reperfusion-induced arrhythmias in relation to 6-keto-PGF1 alpha and thromboxane (TXB2) release was studied. After 30 min of global ischemia, the incidence (total) of ventricular fibrillation (VF) and ventricular tachycardia (VT) was reduced by 2-week pretreatment of the rats with 30 and 100 mg/kg of cicletanine (VF, 33% at 30 mg/kg and 25% at 100 mg/kg vs. 91% in untreated rats; VT, 42% at 30 mg/kg and 42% at 100 mg/kg vs. 100% in untreated rats), while lower doses of cicletanine (3 and 10 mg/kg) failed to reduce the incidence of reperfusion-induced rhythm disturbances. Reperfusion of the ischemic myocardium resulted in a fivefold increase of 6-keto-PGF1 alpha and TXB2 release in the perfusion effluent of fibrillated hearts but not in the perfusion effluent of nonfibrillated hearts. Cicletanine failed to influence the reperfusion-stimulated release of 6-keto-PGF1 alpha and TXB2. These results indicate that the anti-arrhythmic effect of cicletanine in the reperfused myocardium is not related to PGI2 and thromboxane A2 release.