Temsah, Rana M., Kenichi Kawabata, Donald Chapman, and Naranjan S. Dhalla. Preconditioning prevents alterations in cardiac SR gene expression due to ischemiareperfusion. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 282: H1461-H1466, 2002; 10.1152/ajpheart.00447.2001.-We have previously shown that ischemic preconditioning (IP) improves cardiac performance and sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) function in hearts subjected to ischemia-reperfusion (I/R). In this study, we examined the effect of IP on I/R-induced changes in gene expression for SR proteins such as the Ca 2ϩ release channel, Ca 2ϩ pump ATPase, phospholamban, and calsequestrin in the isolated rat heart. Normal isolated rat hearts exposed to three brief cycles of IP (5-min ischemia and 5-min reperfusion) exhibited a significant decrease in the transcript levels of SR genes. Nonpreconditioned I/R hearts when subjected to 30-min ischemia and 30-min reperfusion showed a marked decrease in mRNA levels for the SR proteins compared with normal hearts; this decrease was attenuated by preconditioning. Although hearts subjected to Ca 2ϩ paradox (CP) have been shown to exhibit intracellular Ca 2ϩ overload and SR dysfunction like those in I/R hearts, virtually nothing is known regarding the effect of CP on cardiac SR gene expression. Accordingly, CP (5-min Ca 2ϩ -free perfusion and 30-min reperfusion with normal medium) was observed to produce dramatic changes in SR gene expression, and the heart failed to contract; these alterations were attenuated by IP. Our results show that 1) both I/R and CP depress SR gene expression in the normal heart, 2) IP attenuates I/R-and CP-induced depression in cardiac function and SR gene expression, and 3) intracellular Ca 2ϩ overload may play a role in depressing SR gene expression in both I/R and CP hearts. ischemic preconditioning; ischemia-reperfusion; cardiac mRNA levels; Ca 2ϩ paradoxic heart ISCHEMIC PRECONDITIONING (IP) was first defined by Murry et al. (14) as repetitive cycles of brief ischemia and reperfusion that protected the heart against a subsequent period of prolonged ischemic injury. IP has been shown to enhance the recovery of cardiac function (4, 16), decrease the incidence of arrhythmias (8,19), and reduce infarct size (8) in hearts subjected to ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. Several endogenous mediators such as adenosine, norepinephrine, protein kinase C, and free radicals have been proposed to mediate the beneficial effects of IP (11). Earlier, we (9) reported that IP improved cardiac performance not only in hearts exposed to I/R (16) but also in hearts subjected to Ca 2ϩ paradox (CP). CP is known to occur as a consequence of a brief period of Ca 2ϩ depletion followed by Ca 2ϩ repletion (28) and is considered to be an appropriate model for studying the effect of intracellular Ca 2ϩ overload as a contributing factor in the pathogenesis of cardiac dysfunction (1, 2).By virtue of its ability to regulate the intracellular concentration of free Ca 2ϩ , the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) plays a central role in the cardiac contracti...