Preconditioning, in which water with high mineral content (hard water) is treated with sodium carbonate (soda ash), is also part of the pretreatment process.
The protective effect of postconditioning has demonstrated a similar mechanism to preconditioning, in which ROS are readily involved.
This can be advantageous in a phenomenon known as ischemic preconditioning, in which brief periods of ischemia are protective against subsequent episodes of sustained ischemia followed by reperfusion.
A noteworthy example is the process called preconditioning in which certain ER stress inducers are administered in order to favour an adaptive response, which prevents the destructive consequences of untimely apoptosis [ 8].
In previous studies we established an animal model of ischemic preconditioning, in which the protective effect of previous I/R injury is dependent on the severity of the previous I/R insult [ 4– 6].
Thus, the higher incidence of mild-to-moderate hypoglycemic episodes could create an environment of "hypoglycemic preconditioning" in which the incidence of death of severe hypoglycemia was apparently decreased (hazard ratio 0.88 [95% CI 0.78 1.00]).
In order to achieve this aim a rat model of harmful focal ischemia, obtained by subjecting animals to 100 min of transient occlusion of middle cerebral artery followed by 24 h of reperfusion and a rat model of ischemic preconditioning in which the harmful ischemia was preceded by 30 mins of tMCAO, which represents the preconditioning protective stimulus, were used.
Cardioprotection can be conferred by many protocols, including pre-treatment with mitochondrial uncouplers, such as DNP, and hormones, such as insulin, and profound protection is observed with ischaemic preconditioning, in which short bursts of mild ischaemia are applied before prolonged ischaemia.
Being released into the circulation, the triggers have also the potential to protect cells not directly subjected to IPC [ 26], which could at least in part explain the phenomenon of remote preconditioning (RIPC), in which preconditioning of non-cardiac tissue such as skeletal muscle [ 24] and kidney [ 33] will protect the heart from subsequent ischemic events.
The effect shows which events this activity triggers once executed, while the precondition shows in which contextual states the execution of the activity is allowed.
