Ischemic preconditioning protects the rabbit myocardium from infarction from a subsequent ischemia, and adenosine receptors appear to be involved in this protection. The present study attempts to determine when adenosine receptors must be occupied to achieve protection by infusing the adenosine receptor antagonist PD-115,199 at various time points during the study. Open-chest rabbits were subjected to 30 min of regional ischemia followed by 3 h of reperfusion and had 38 +/- 4% infarction of the risk zone. When hearts were preconditioned by 5 min of ischemia and 10 min reperfusion before the 30-min period of ischemia, only 9 +/- 2% infarction occurred. PD-115,199 given 5 min before the ischemic preconditioning episode blocked the protective effect of preconditioning (39 +/- 5% infarction). PD-115,199 also blocked the protection when given between the ischemic preconditioning episode and the 30-min period of ischemia (30 +/- 4% infarction). PD-115,199 given at the end of 30 min of ischemia did not block protection in preconditioned (PC) hearts (17 +/- 5% infarction) and had no effect on non-PC hearts (44 +/- 6% infarction). In prior studies we found that exogenous adenosine could substitute for ischemia to precondition the heart, indicating that adenosine is an initiator of preconditioning. These results, however, indicate that adenosine receptors must also be occupied during the long ischemic period for preconditioning to be protective and suggest that adenosine is a mediator of preconditioning as well.