Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the potentialprotective effect of whortleberry by examining the effects on hearttissue at the molecular level of ischemia-reperfusion injury causedby surgical repair of a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm.Methods: Between May 2018 and February 2019, a total of 32male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned into control,sham (ischemia-reperfusion+glycerol), ischemia-reperfusion,and ischemia-reperfusion+whortleberry groups. Hypovolemicshock was applied to the rats in the ischemia-reperfusion groupsfor one hour. The abdominal aorta was explored followingmidline laparotomy and atraumatic microvascular clamps wereapplied from the infrarenal level. Following one-hour ischemia,the clamps were removed, and reperfusion was established fortwo hours. In the sham group, intraperitoneal glycerol once dailywas applied five days before surgery. In the whortleberry group,whortleberry treatment was administered via the intraperitonealroute five days before ischemia-reperfusion.Results: The ischemia-reperfusion group exhibited a decreasein the glutathione levels and an increase in the malondialdehydelevels (p<0.01 and p<0.01, respectively). We also observed anincrease in the caspase-3 positivity in cardiac myofibrils (p<0.01).Whortleberry administration lowered both malondialdehydelevels and numerical density of caspase-3 positive cardiacmyofibrils, while increasing the heart tissue glutathione levels,compared to the ischemia-reperfusion alone group (p<0.01,p=0.011, and p=0.011, respectively).Conclusion: Whortleberry may be beneficial in preventingcardiac tissue damage caused by ischemia-reperfusion in thesurgical repair of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms.