CASP3 and myocardial infarction: Firstly, we demonstrate that pretreatment with GSRd attenuated in vivo MI/R injury in a rat model (evidenced by improved cardiac function, reduced infarct size, and reduced myocardial apoptosis after MI/R), and reduced in vitro SI/R injury in cultured NRCs (evidenced by increased cardiomyocyte viability, decreased cardiomyocyte LDH activity, and reduced cardiomyocyte caspase-3 and -9 cleavage).