RESUMO
The past few years have witnessed a remarkable advance in our understanding of the pathophysiology of coronary heart disease. Myocardial ischemia usually occurs on the basis of coronary atherosclerosis. Although the functional consequences of depriving the myocardium of its blood supply have been appreciated for many years, coronary heart disease is still the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the western world. This has focused the attention of physicians on restoring blood flow to the ischemic region in order to prevent tissue necrosis and regain organ function. Reperfusion of ischemic tissues is often associated with microvascular dysfunction that is manifested as impaired endothelial-dependent dilatation in arterioles and leukocyte plugging in capillaries. The availability of a broad variety of knockout mice provides important clues about the progression of the ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. Therefore mouse models for I/R are of great importance for the development of new therapeutic strategies for humans.
