Cardiac postconditioning is paradoxical in rat. Certain authors showed that this animal could be protected by postconditioning whereas others showed that it was ineffective. The objective of our work was to clarify this situation and to establish a link between the regulation of the mitochondrial functions and the success or the failure of postconditioning. We showed on an in vivo model that the rat is sensitive to cardiac postconditioning under certain conditions. It seems that the success of this therapy requires at the same time a safeguarding of oxidative phosphorylation, an inhibition of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore opening and a reduction in the ROS production. We also showed that complex I of the respiratory chain controls the opening of the mPTP in relation with the state of Cyp D. Our results show that the rat is not insensitive to postconditioning, but it is necessary to preserve the integrity of the mitochondrial functions to be effective. The cardioprotection and the regulation of the mitochondrial functions are specifically related to the model used
