[Empagliflozin alleviates cardiac microvascular ischemia/reperfusion injury by maintaining myocardial mitochondrial homeostasis].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of empagliflozin (EMPA) in mitigating microvascular and endothelial damage induced by myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. METHODS: Fifteen male C57BL/6J mice were randomized into shamoperated group, I/R group and I/R+EMPA group, and in the latter two groups, myocardial I/R injury was induced by ligating the left anterior descending coronary artery followed by reperfusion for 2 h. EMPA treatment was administered at the daily dose of 10 mg/kg for 7 days. After the treatment, the changes in myocardial microvascular structure of the mice were observed under electron microscopy. In the cell experiment, cultured human coronary artery endothelial cells (HCAECs) were treated with 10 μmol/L EMPA before exposure to hypoxia for 45 min followed normoxic culture for 2 h. Western blotting and immunofluorescence assay were performed to observe fibrin accumulation and endothelial cell protein expressions in the myocardial tissues of the mice and in HCAECs, and RT-qPCR was used to detect the expressions of pro-inflammatory cytokines. RESULTS: < 0.05). CONCLUSION: EMPA can alleviate myocardial I/R injury by maintaining mitochondrial homeostasis to protect the microvascular system.