Fig. 2

Schematic representation of the difference between ischemic postconditioning and acidic reperfusion. Abrupt reperfusion simultaneously induces reoxygenation of the tissue and washout of metabolites including lactate, which is mainly responsible for intracellular acidosis produced during ischemia (upper panel). Ischemic postconditioning delays both reoxygenation and recovery from intracellular acidosis on a similar timescale (middle panel). In contrast, acidic reperfusion selectively delays the recovery from intracellular acidosis (bottom panel)