We investigated whether the expression of heme oxygenase (HO) isozymes was related to the occurrence of ventricular fibrillation (VF) induced by ischemia/reperfusion in nondiabetic and diabetic myocardium. To study the role of HO-1 and HO-2 mRNA expression in VF, isolated hearts obtained from nondiabetic and 8-week diabetic rats were subjected to 30 min of ischemia followed by 2 h of reperfusion. Expression of HO-1 and HO-2 mRNA was studied in fibrillated and nonfibrillated myocardium using Northern blotting and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The effect of zinc protoporphyrin IX (Zn-PPIX), a potent inhibitor of HO activity, on HO activity was also studied in ischemic/reperfused hearts. Upon reperfusion, an expression of HO-1 was observed in nonfibrillated myocardium. HO-1 mRNA expression was significantly reduced in hearts showed VF. Zn-PPIX (5 microM) treatment reduced HO activity from its control values of 398+/-27 (in nondiabetics) and 370+/-20 pmol bilirubin/h (in diabetics) to 69+/-14 (in nondiabetics, p<.05) and 60+/-11 pmol bilirubin/h (in diabetics, p<.05), respectively, and all hearts, upon reperfusion, showed VF in both nondiabetic and diabetic subjects. HO-2 expression was unchanged in nonfibrillated and fibrillated myocardium. Postischemic function showed no correlation with the expression of these genes. Our data show that the mechanism(s) of ischemia/reperfusion-induced VF involves the downregulation of HO-1 mRNA and a reduction in HO activity. Furthermore, the mechanism(s) of VF at molecular level involving HO isozymes does not show a significant difference between nondiabetics and diabetics.