An immunohistochemical study of basic fibroblast growth factor in early acute myocardial ischemia

With the use of immunohistochemistry, the expression of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) in early acute myocardial ischemia of rats was studied. It was observed that there was an initial (30 min) rise in bFGF expression in limited ischemic myocardium areas and perimyocardial ischemia areas. The grade of expression of bFGF increased with the continuation of ischemia. The results of image analysis and statistical process suggested that the expression of bFGF reach a high level in ischemic myocardial areas after three hour's of ischemia, significantly higher than in control group and in group B1, but no significant difference in pericardial ischemia areas and normal areas of the same group. In summary, early acute myocardial ischemia is accompanied by rapid and prolonged increase in expression of bFGF with characteristic spatial and temporal kinetic. This finding suggests that the immunohistochemical staining of bFGF provide objective morphologic evidence for the diagnosis of early myocardial ischemia.