Protecting hearts from damage sustained during myocardial ischaemia and reperfusion remains an ongoing challenge. Despite successful findings with animal models, the task of trialling and effectively translating experimental findings from laboratory to patients has proven difficult, therefore treatments and clinical therapies are still urgently needed to protect the heart and improve cardiac functional outcome. Previous research has implicated adenosine and opioid receptor participation in the protective response preceding or following myocardial infarction, with evidence of potential cross-talk between receptors. This project aimed to investigate whether A1 adenosine (A1AR) and δ-opioid receptor (δ-OR) dependent cytoprotection and prosurvival kinase activation in murine hearts share common dependencies on 'cross-talk' between both G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) sub-types and whether these responses involve a common Matrix Metalloproteinase (MMP) and Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) dependent signalling pathway. This was achieved via four inter-related in vitro studies. [...]