Abstract: AIM: To observe the effects of magne-sium gluconate on myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury in anesthetized rats and to investigate the cardioprotective effects of magnesium gluconate. METHODS: The im-proved model of myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury in anesthetized ratswas adopted. Na⁺-K⁺ -ATPase activity, malondialdehyde (MDA) and Ca²⁺ contents in myocardi-um were assayed.The platelet aggregation AGG(M) and Mg²⁺ in blood serum were assayed at the same time. RESULTS: Na⁺ -K⁺ -ATPase activity decreased and MDA and Ca²⁺ contents increased in the ischemia reperfusion group compared with sham.The AGG(M) and Na⁺ -K⁺ ATPase activity increased, and MDA and Ca²⁺ contents and AGG (M) decreased in the three different dosages group of magnesium gluconate comparedwith the ischemia reperfusion group.The cardioprotective effects increased with the dose increasing of magnesium gluconate. CONCLUSION: Magnesium gluconate has protective effects on myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury in rats.It may be related to increasing the activity of Na⁺ -K⁺ -ATPase, and to relieving calcium overload and inhibiting lipid per-oxidation and platelet aggregation.

Key words: magnesium gluconate, myocardial is-chemia reperfusion injury, platelet aggregation, Na⁺-K⁺-ATPase, MDA