Bread Crust Extract Protects Rats’ Vascular Grafts from in Vitro Ischemia/reperfusion Injury

Ischemia/reperfusion (IR) injury affects harvested vascular grafts during coronary artery bypass surgery. We hypothesized that bread crust extract (BCE) protects vascular grafts from IR injury. Thoracic aortic rings from Wistar rats were mounted on organ bath chambers (control) or subjected to in vitro IR injury either in saline (IR) or saline-supplemented with BCE (IR + BCE). Impaired maximum endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation to acetylcholine (control 73 ± 2 % vs IR 40 ± 2 % vs IR + BCE 63 ± 3 %, p < 0.05), altered maximal phenylephrine-induced contractile responses and high K+-induced depolarization in the IR-group compared to controls were improved by BCE. Computer-assisted artificial intelligence methods, applied on gene expression data, showed that increased Ccl2 expression (>-7.23) with a decrease in the anti-oxidant gene Gclc (≤-2.947) and Stab1 (≤-6.144) levels were reflecting IR-group, whereas increased Ccl2 expression (>-7.23) with an increased Gclc (>-2.947) level were indicatory for IR + BCE-rings. Furthermore, BCE lowered nitrotyrosine and poly(ADP-ribose)-polymerase-1 immunoreactivity. BCE protects vascular grafts from in vitro IR injury.