Fig. 5

N-acetylcysteine attenuated myocardial ischemia–reperfusion (I/R) injury in diabetic rats. Control (C) or STZ-induced diabetic rats were either untreated (D) or treated with antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (1.5 g/kg/day, NAC) by oral gavage for 4 weeks. Then the rats were anaesthetized and subjected to myocardial I/R achieved by occluding the left anterior descending coronary artery for 30 min followed by reperfusion for 2 h. Sham-operated rats underwent the same surgical procedures without ligation. a–d infarct size (a), CK-MB (b), plasma 15-F2t-Isoprostane (15-F2t-IsoP, c), and cardiac 15-F2t-IsoP (d). All the results are expressed as mean ± SD, n = 7. Differences of infarct size among the groups were determined by using one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s test, the others were determined by using two-way repeated-measures ANOVA followed by Bonferroni’s post hoc test. *P < 0.05 vs. the other groups in sham or I/R conditions