Direct determination of extracellular fluid in the rat heart

Accumulation of amino acids in muscle of perfused rat heart. Effect of insulin

1. Rat heart perfused with Krebs-Henseleit bicarbonate buffer released material containing ninhydrin-positive nitrogen, but the amount was less than that reported to be released by diaphragm; glucose, but not insulin, decreased the release of ninhydrin-positive nitrogen and increased the concentration of the same material in the intracellular water of heart. 2. When heart was perfused with a mixture of amino acids and glucose, there was actually a net uptake, and an increase in intracellular concentration, of ninhydrin-positive nitrogen. Changes in the concentration of ninhydrin-positive nitrogen did not accurately reflect changes in concentration of amino acids. 3. The effect of insulin on the actual concentration of individual amino acids in heart muscle was examined by perfusing the heart with a mixture of amino acids and other ninhydrin-positive substances in the same concentration as they are found in plasma. 4. The effect of insulin on the concentrations of amino acids in the medium and in the intracellular water of the heart was determined after perfusion for different periods of time. No clear or meaningful effect of insulin was observed, despite the fact that insulin significantly increased the accumulation, in each of the same hearts, of radioactivity from amino[(14)C]isobutyric acid.

Influence of contractile state on the size of the extracellular space in isolated ventricular myocardium

A method is described with which the extracellular space of isolated ventricular muscle can be measured accurately and continuously in the same muscle. The size of the extracellular space is shown to vary with the contractile state of the myocardium. Interventions such as quiescence, manganese and acidosis reduce myocardial contractility and increase the size of the extracellular space. Barium, ouabain and hypoxia cause contracture and reduce the size of the extracellular space. These changes should be taken into account when measuring intracellular electrolytes in isolated ventricular preparations.

Protective role of increased myocardial glycogen stores in cardiac anoxia in the rat

To determine whether increased glycogen stores might protect the heart against anoxia, experiments were performed in the isolated perfused rat heart. Marked differences in cardiac glycogen were produced by comparing hearts from rats previously treated with reserpine with hearts from control rats. Lesser differences in cardiac glycogen were produced in hearts by perfusing them for 15 minutes without glucose (0 mM glucose) or with 20 mM glucose. Both groups were then studied during a 5-minute anoxic cycle with 5 mM glucose as the exogenous substrate. Hearts from the reserpine-treated rats had higher left ventricular pressures, maximal rate of left ventricular pressure rise, and lactate output after 2 minutes of anoxia than the hearts from control rats. Similar but less marked mechanical differences were observed between 0 mM glucose and 20 mM glucose hearts. The mechanical differences during anoxia between the two groups were not abolished by simultaneous L-norepinephrine administration. Hearts with greater initial glycogen stores had higher glycogenolytic rates, and proportionately more lactate was produced from glycogen than from glucose. Thus, anaerobic ATP production per mole of hexose was greater in hearts with higher glycogen stores. Calculated ATP production was also greater in hearts from the reserpine-treated rats than in those from control animals.

These studies demonstrate that both marked and minor elevations in cardiac glycogen are associated with greater glycolytic reserve and improved mechanical resistance to anoxia. This appears to be mainly due to enhanced glycogenolysis and anaerobic ATP production.

Accessibility of heart water to pentoses

1. The raffinose space, the inulin space and the weight loss on compression of perfused rat hearts are indistinguishable in magnitude.2. The inulin space shows systematic variations from day to day and is also affected by the procedure used for removing surplus water from the perfused heart. It is therefore not safe to use a mean figure of extracellular space in permeability experiments.3. Perfusion of hearts with arabinose solutions alters the intracellular water content. These alterations can be accounted for if it is assumed that the arabinose which penetrates the cells is uniformly distributed in the cell water.4. By appropriate choice of pentose concentration and of time of perfusion it can be shown that all the estimated cell water is accessible to pentose.5. It is concluded that no detectable fraction of the extracellular water is inaccessible to inulin and that no detectable fraction of the intracellular water is inaccessible to pentose.

Effects of high-energy phosphate depletion and repletion on the dynamics and electrocardiogram of isolated rat hearts

To explore the sequence of metabolic, mechanical, and electrocardiographic (ECG) events during myocardial anoxia, isolated rat hearts were paced from the atrium. Anoxic and recovery periods were studied. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and creatine phosphate (CP) declined to 50% of control during the first minute and remained at that level for the 5-minute anoxic period. ATP and CP returned to control values after 10 and 20 seconds of recovery. Lactate and potassium efflux from the myocardium closely followed the highenergy phosphate changes. During anoxia, left ventricular systolic pressure increased initially, then fell below the control level after 2 minutes, and recovered within 20 seconds of reoxygenation. In catecholamine-depleted hearts, it fell immediately with anoxia, and recovery was incomplete. The conduction time for the pacing stimulus to reach the ventricle increased with anoxia and decreased with reoxygenation. S-T alterations in the ECG also lagged behind high-energy phosphate reduction and recovery.

The study demonstrates that in the isolated heart, ECG evidence of myocardial hypoxia may be absent when high-energy phosphate levels in the myocardium are very low. Mechanical changes are more closely related temporally to high-energy phosphate alterations than are ECG changes. The release of endogenous catecholamines is important to maintain mechanical function in the hypoxic heart.

Factors controlling the washout of the interstitial space of the isolated, perfused rat heart

1. The time course of the washout of the extracellular markers, inulin, raffinose, sucrose and sorbitol, has been determined for the isolated rat heart perfused for 20 min with Krebs bicarbonate medium containing the marker, and washed out with marker-free perfusate.2. The filtration problem for the perfused rat heart was found to be due to omission of the gassing of the concentrated sodium bicarbonate solution with CO(2) in the preparation of the perfusate. This probably caused calcium phosphate to be precipitated. The reduced contractility of the heart was reflected in the washout of the extracellular markers.3. The logarithmic plot of the heart content of the marker against time showed two components. The slower was an exponential process, the rate of which was linearly related to the diffusion coefficient for the various markers.4. The faster component was absent in the quiescent heart, and in the beating heart its contribution to the washout of the interstitial space was related to the strength of contraction.5. Similar washout curves were obtained for Evans Blue-albumin conjugate, which readily penetrates the interstitial space of the isolated rat heart.6. It is suggested that the two components of efflux are a diffusion process limited by perfusate flow, and bulk movements of fluid.

Distribution of ions and water between tissue compartments in the perfused left ventricle of the rat heart

Left ventricles from rat hearts were perfused through the coronary blood vessels for periods up to 90 minutes with solution containing radioactively labeled sulfate, sucrose, urea, glycerol, or chloride. Urea and glycerol equilibrate with all of tissue water. By contrast, 35 SO 4 and sucrose- 14 C equilibrate very rapidly with 40% of total water and slowly with an additional 20%; they are excluded from 40% of the tissue water. The two "cellular" compartments (C 2 , which equilibrates slowly with SO 4 and sucrose, and C 3 , from which SO 4 and sucrose are excluded) both lose water when hearts are perfused with a solution made hypertonic with NaCl. Chemical analyses for K, Na, and Cl, and measurements of the rate of equilibration of 36 C1 show that C 2 has low contents of Cl and Na. Experiments in which extracellular NaCl was replaced osmole for osmole by KCl according to the method of Boyle and Conway suggest that the boundaries of C 2 and C 3 may have different ionic permeabilities. These observations indicate that the division of mammalian heart muscle into tissue compartments is more complex than conventionally assumed, a conclusion reached by Bozler for frog heart muscle. They are inconsistent with the usual assumption that cardiac cellular water is homogeneous.

Increased permeability of the capillaries of the rat heart to plasma albumin with asphyxiation and with perfusion

1. Studies on the rate of efflux from the isolated perfused rat heart of plasma albumin conjugated with Evans Blue showed the conjugate to have penetrated extensively the extravascular compartment of the organ during a period of 2 min. This was confirmed by direct analysis of hearts for Evans Blue after perfusion.2. Exposure of the hearts to Evans Blue-albumin conjugate for 8 min in vivo showed no significant penetration of the interstitial space.3. With the isolated preparation inclusion of promethazine in the perfusing medium significantly diminished the rate of penetration of the extravascular compartment by the conjugate as did injection of the animals with either reserpine 2 days before, or bretylium immediately before the experiment.4. Penetration of the interstitial compartment in vivo could be induced by repeated asphyxiation. This penetration could also be diminished by promethazine but was not influenced by mepyramine maleate. The increased permeability of capillaries to plasma proteins can be readily demonstrated in the whole animal by detecting the leakage from the vasculature of the plasma proteins conjugated with a dye (Menkin & Menkin, 1930; Miles & Miles, 1952). Evans Blue, which has been widely used as a vascular marker because of the stability of its conjugate with plasma albumin, is the most suitable dye for this purpose. In the present work this method has been applied to the isolated rat heart, to determine if changes in capillary permeability occur in the perfused tissue. When plasma albumin conjugated with Evans Blue was used as a vascular marker in this preparation, its rate of clearance was very much less than that of erythrocytes, and the amount contained in the heart corresponded to a space approaching that occupied by extracellular markers such as raffinose and inulin. It was concluded, therefore, that there was a failure of a considerable number of the cardiac capillaries to retain the plasma albumin, and subsequent work was directed towards the identification of the condition that gives rise to these changes and the possible involvement of a permeability factor.A preliminary account of part of this work was given to the Physiologcal Society (Sutherland & Young, 1961).

THE EFFECT OF INSULIN ON HUMAN ADIPOSE TISSUE

The effects of insulin on glucose transport and dissimilation have been studied in the rat fat pad and in human omentum. Intracellular glucose could not be demonstrated in the non-diabetic rat fat pad, with or without insulin. Slices of omentum, obtained during surgery from diabetic and non-diabetic patients, were incubated in a bicarbonate medium with a glucose concentration of 5.6 mM. Omentum from non-diabetic patients had intracellular glucose while diabetic tissue had none. Diabetic tissue had a significantly lower glucose uptake. In both, insulin stimulated glucose uptake in inverse relation to the basal uptake; but for comparable basal uptakes, the response to insulin was decreased in diabetic tissue. Glucose phosphorylation in omental tissue from non-diabetic humans had an apparent Km of 1.10 m M and a Vmax of 1.44 mg/g hour.Insulin (0.1 units/ml), bovine or human serum albumin, or a combination of insulin and bovine albumin, each increased glucose utilization by slices of non-diabetic omentum without affecting the intracellular glucose content or the free fatty acid content. In omental homogenates (cell-free), insulin and bovine serum albumin each increased the glucose utilization. In the presence of albumin, insulin increased the utilization only after the addition of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and phosphohexose isomerase in amounts sufficient to establish that hexokinase was rate-limiting for glucose utilization.It is concluded that (A) in diabetic human omentum and in normal rat fat pad, transport is rate-limiting in glucose utilization; (B) insulin and albumin each stimulate both transport and phosphorylation in human omentum; (C) in human diabetes, the glucose transport process of omentum has a decreased basal rate and a decreased responsiveness to insulin.